Investigations into breast cancer detection using ultra wide band microwave radar technique

An experimental investigation into capabilities of an Ultra Wideband (UWB) Microwave Radar to detect breast cancer is presented. A phantom, consisting of a cylindrical plastic container with a low dielectric constant material imitating fatty tissues and a high dielectric constant object emulating tumour, is scanned over a circular cylindrical surface with an UWB probe antenna. Following the collection of an experimental data, spatial images of the breast phantom are formed using two different approaches. One neglects and the other one compensates for the signal drop with distance. The approach compensating for the received signal drop enables a successful detection of tumour targets with a diameter as small as 5mm at different distances from the skin layer just by visual inspection of the produced image. ©2009 IEEE