Simulated and experimental investigation of microwave imaging using UWB

Abstract

Microwave breast tumour detection is a non-invasive technique that uses non ionizing radiation. Microwave imaging has the potential to achieve early detection of breast cancer due to the high specificity and the large difference in electrical properties of the malignant tissue when compared to normal breast tissue. This paper studies the feasibility of using UWB signals for breast imaging. Simulated results using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) Method will be presented. A sensibility study of the variations in the breast relative dielectric permittivity and of the variations of the skin-surface contour is also provided. A working prototype for microwave imaging is developed using a conventional Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) with the time processing capability.