| Recently, microwave imaging has been proposed as a technique for early detection of breast cancer. It is based on the intrinsic contrast in the dielectric properties of healthy and cancerous breast tissues at microwave frequencies. An ultrawideband pulse is transmitted through the breast and a portion of it is scattered when interfaces between two tissues (i.e., fat and tumor) are encountered. The scattered signal is received by antennas surrounding the breast and analyzed to reveal tumor size and location.;This work presents a proposed system for time-domain microwave breast imaging. The components are discussed in detail, with a particular focus on the antennas and radome. Realistic numerical and experimental breast models are constructed for use in validation tests of the proposed system. Simulations and measurements of the antennas behaviour in air, a fat-like medium and radomes of various materials are given. Initial experimental results using complete breast phantoms are presented. |
