Design of a UWB patch antenna and performance evaluation in detecting brain tumors

Abstract

In this study, a patch antenna is designed for easy fabrication and effective operation across a wide frequency range, making it particularly valuable for detecting brain tumors within a human head phantom using the monostatic technique. The study presents the proposed antenna's modeling in four stages, analyzing all essential parameters where a substrate material consisting of FR 4 is used. The antenna has a patch area of 0.27 λ × 0.21 λ and operates at 7.5 (free space), 7.48, and 7.47 GHz with a wide bandwidth of 3.188 GHz (free space), whereas in measurement, it operates in free space at 6.79 GHz with a bandwidth of 3.24 GHz, which is also categorized as an ultra-wide band. A comparative analysis is carried out between the proposed patch antenna and previous studies utilizing FR4 and similar substrate materials to enhance understanding. In this research, the analysis includes a human head phantom model, assessing key performance criteria such as SAR, return loss, and VSWR. The time-dependent analysis provides in this study insights into the dynamic behavior of the system in detecting brain tumor. The proposed antenna has been evaluated and yielded a maximum specific absorption rate (SAR) of 0.420985 W/kg for 1 gram of tissue in the head phantom. The performance of the patch antenna is evaluated using CST software, while the fabricated PCB antenna is tested in real-world conditions to ensure dependable operation in practical applications. The main challenge addressed in this work is achieving accurate brain tumor detection within a human head phantom model in a CST environment and using a UWB patch antenna fabricated via PCB technology.