Narrow focus ultra-wideband antenna for breast cancer detection

A narrow focus ultra-wideband dielectric-filled antenna has been designed for the purpose of near-field breast cancer detection without the use of coupling media. Instead of immersing the antenna in a lossy liquid coupling medium, direct matching of the substrate and antenna to the biological tissue is proposed here. The proposed feed structure was designed on low-cost printed-circuit-board (PCB) with alumina substrate and the antenna radiating section on HIK dielectric material. A design procedure for the antenna is outlined. The aperture size was 0.1 cm by 6.35 cm. A return loss less than 5 dB from 2 to 10.6 GHz and a minimum return loss of 10 dB was obtained from 4.6 to 10.6 GHz. The antenna had simulated near-field narrow beam with half-power beamwidth of 10.3deg.