Microwave Imaging for Breast Tumor Detection Using a CPW Antenna
Marwa Slimi, Bassem Jmai, Hugo Dinis, Ali Gharsallah
Abstract
Objectives: This work is devoted to the study and design of a small and flexible CPW patch antenna (26x30x0.64) mm3 for microwave tumor detection. Methods : The suggested flexible CPW antenna for breast cancer detection is made with a Rogers RO 3010 substrate (0.64 mm thickness). The simulation was carried out using HFSS software and the experimental validation was done with liquid phantoms which have the same EM characteristics of breast and tumor. Two tumor phantoms of different sizes, 8 and 15 mm, were tested. Two scenarios for breast cancer detection are proposed. In the first scenario, the proposed CPW antenna is used only as a receiver of the RF signal traveling through the breast. In the second scenario, two CPW antennas are used, one as a transmitter and the other as a receiver. Findings: Both the simulation and experimental results in free space of the antenna performance show that the resonance frequency of the proposed antenna is around 4.5 GHz and there is a good agreement between the simulated and experimental results. In addition, the proposed antenna has a gain of 2 dB at the desired frequency. The achieved radiation efficiency of the antenna is 86%. The comparative study of the transmission coefficient (S12) in the two scenarios yielded almost the same results, and the tumor detection was demonstrated at the frequency of 2.95 GHz with both tumor sizes (without tumors: S12 =-43.72 dB; with tumors: S12 =-55.36dB for the 15 mm tumor and S12 =-48.36 dB for the 8 mm one). Novelty: The proposed CPW antenna is useful as a sensor for tumor detection because of its relatively high radiation efficiency, flexible and small size. Keywords: Microwave imaging; breast cancer detection; tumor; CPW antenna; Phantom