Design and analysis of a super compact UWB antenna for accurate detection of breast tumors using monostatic radar‐based microwave imaging technique

Abstract

AbstractThis article proposes a low‐profile ultra‐wideband (UWB) antenna for breast tumor detection using the monostatic radar‐based microwave imaging (RBMI) technique. The proposed UWB antenna consists of a circular patch and ground plane along with a modified tapered feed line having a total size of 13 × 9 × 1.6 mm3. The designed antenna operates from 4 to 11 GHz based on a −10 dB reflection coefficient with a peak gain of 9.5 dBi at 4.8 GHz. Experimental validation is carried out after fabricating the prototype of the UWB antenna and the breast mimic. The measured backscattered signals are captured using the vector network analyzer (E‐5063A) by keeping the antenna at 10 mm from the breast phantom. After that, post‐processing of the measured data is done to detect the exact depth and location of the malignant tissue. The proposed antenna uses UWB band frequency of operation because it has some unique features, that is, it provides immunity to multipath fading, has a simple design, has a low cost of fabrication, and has biological friendliness. Moreover, due to the proposed antenna's resonance at a lower resonant frequency better depth of penetration is achieved in human body phantoms and the proposed antenna provides specific absorption rates (SAR) of 0.877 W/kg over 1 g of tissue at 4.8 GHz, which is an acceptable limit for SAR as per FCC guidelines. Therefore, the proposed antenna and monostatic RBMI technique are good candidates for breast tumor detection.