A Directional Antenna in a Matching Liquid for Microwave Radar Imaging

Abstract

The detailed design equations and antenna parameters for a directional antenna for breast imaging are presented in this paper. The antenna was designed so that it could be immersed in canola oil to achieve efficient coupling of the electromagnetic energy to the breast tissue. Ridges were used in the horn antenna to increase the operating bandwidth. The antenna has an exponentially tapered section for impedance matching. The double-ridged horn antenna has a wideband performance from 1.5 GHz to 5 GHz (3.75 GHz or 110% of impedance bandwidth), which is suitable for breast microwave radar imaging. The fabricated antenna was tested and compared with simulated results, and similar bandwidths were obtained. Experiments were conducted on breast phantoms using these antennas, to detect a simulated breast lesion. The reconstructed image from the experiments shows distinguishable tumor responses indicating promising results for successful breast cancer detection.