paper 150205072050

This paper introduces the prototype of a scanning system operating in the mi- crowave range 0.5–4 GHz with strong potential for biomedical applications such as breast cancer detection or to assess shape-discontinuity in bones. A fully automated scanner was designed to reduce mechanical uncertainties and data acquisition time. Accurate positioning and synchro- nization with data acquisition enables a rigorous proof-of-concept for the microwave imaging procedure. The system can remotely control two printed antipodal Vivaldi antennas that scan a phantom across a set of positions arranged in cylindrical coordinates. For antenna miniaturiza- tion and improved coupling, the antennas and their interface and the phantom are immersed in a coupling medium that presents electric properties similar to adipose tissue. The system performs automatically both the antenna positioning and data acquisition and post-processing. In the current version the reflection coefficients are measured by a Vector Network Analyzer (VNA). But the integration of dedicated chipboard attached to each antenna to replace the VNA and speed up data acquisition is on process. Without any difficult a priori antenna characterization, the system is to detect, in the phantom, enclosed regions with distinctive dielectric contrast.

Citation

Adriana Brancaccio, Giuseppe Ruvio, Max J. Ammann, Bruno Basile, Antonio Cuccaro, and Raffaele Solimene, "3-D Microwave Scanner for Biomedical Applications: A Preliminary Prototype," Proceedings of 2015 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Prague, July 6 - 9，Page(s)1502-1505

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