Design of a Wearable Microwave Antenna System for Breast Tumor Imaging

Breast cancer is a very common and serious condition that affects many women and needs early intervention to minimize the impact on health. Differentiation of the cancerous tissue from the healthy tissue can be carried out using electromagnetic waves by utilizing the different responses due to varying electromagnetic material characteristics. The specific absorption rate is a measurement of the absorbed electromagnetic energy in a volume which can be very useful in the detection of cancerous tissue. In this work, we focus on the design of an antenna that is distinctive in its geometric properties as it is bendable in two axes (both x and y) and hence can fit onto a half-spherical array. An antenna array that consists of antennas of size 18mm x 18mm x 2 mm is designed to be conformal to a bra's shape. A three-layered 3D breast model of different tissue types and a tumor medium is used to investigate the specific absorption rate through simulations.