Experimental results for a novel microwave radiator structure targeting non-invasive breast cancer detection

In this paper, the performance of a proposed breast cancer detection tool based on microwave technology is studied through phantom experiments. Simulation results related to this experimental study have been demonstrated in other publications by the authors. This work is inspired by the safety and the low-cost attribute of the microwave technology. Here, the normalized magnitude and phase differences of the scattering parameters are measured and calculated to depict the actual detection capability of the tool. The proposed radiating structure consists of sixteen curved planar dipole antennas incorporated in a plastic base and covered by a shielding conductor surface. The frequency band of 0.4 GHz-2.5 GHz is studied. This case study shows that the practically implementable tool introduced herein is able to detect the existence of a deep tumor through a set of in-vivo, non-invasive measurements.