An Experimental Performance Investigation of an Ultra-Wideband Directional Antenna in the Microwave Imaging of Breast Cancer Tumor

The purpose of this study is testing the performance and success of a compact-sized, ultrawide-band and directional printed circular monopole antenna proposed in a previous study for detection of the small breast cancer tumors. For this aim, simple but basic experimental studies of the radar based ultra-wideband microwave measurement system are presented. In the measurements, different breast phantoms that have low dielectric constant materials representing the fat tissue and high dielectric constant object representing the tumor are formed and used. The object is located at different positions and the reflected signals are observed. The mono-static system which uses the same antenna to perform both the transmitting and receiving task of the signals is preferred in the study. According to the measured frequency domain signals, the reflected energy increases when the tumor is present. According to the amplitude and phase of the time domain signals, the presence, position and size of the tumor are inferenced. In order to provide more clear information about the tumor, a sample image is also created by implementing delay-and-sum algorithm. Furthermore, specific absorption rate of the breast is discussed. In summary, the performance of the antenna is valid for using in the radar-based ultra-wideband microwave imaging with respect to its features of the size, bandwidth, directivity, and beamwidth.