Breast Tumor Detection Using Multi-Channel 62-69 GHz Millimeter-wave 3D Imaging Technology

Abstract

Current imaging techniques used for breast cancer diagnosis have limitations such as concerns about human safety during diagnosis, the cost of the equipment, and the resolution of the imaging system to provide early detection of breast cancer. Therefore, there are proposed imaging systems and algorithms to improve breast cancer diagnosis and techniques. Among them, the millimeter-wave radar imaging system has attracted much attention because of its high safety for the human body and better resolution at high frequencies. However, previous studies have used radars that operate at a maximum frequency of around 50 GHz, so there is a lack of investigation with higher breast cancer imaging systems. Therefore, the IMAGEVK-74 millimeter-wave imaging radar by Vayyar Imaging with 20 Tx and 20 Rx on-board antennas is configured to transmit and receive signals anywhere from 62 to 69 GHz range in this study. In order to investigate the possibility of imaging malignant tumors with the radar imaging system, we made a breast phantom based on previous papers, embedded the tumor phantom in the breast phantom, and placed it in a less noisy environment for testing. We collected the radar data samples at the imaging radar, passed the data samples through the average method to reduce the noise signal, and then reconstructed the 3D image of the target by calculating the signal channel response for each spatial pixel. The system is validated in two experiments, including locating the tumor phantom on and off the axis. The experimental setup is as follows. A tumor phantom of 1 cm in size is embedded in the breast phantom, and the actual tumor phantom location is calculated and tested for both on axis and off axis about 1.5 cm from the center point. Finally, the actual tumor phantom location is compared with the imaging result, and MSE is calculated. The results show that the MSE is 0.0765 when the tumor phantom is on the axis and 0.0969 when the tumor phantom is off the axis. The possibility of this imaging system for imaging tumor phantom in different locations is found. Furthermore, preliminary imaging results are presented