Development of a compact wide-slot antenna for early stage breast cancer detection featuring circular array full-view geometry

Abstract

A novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers' substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with 5 0 Ω microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at -10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7: 1 to 3.6: 1. © 2014 S. S. Tiang et al.