METAMATERIAL BASED COMPACT FLEXIBLE ANTENNA FOR BREAST IMAGING APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Breast cancer is a disease that affects large population of women around the world.Unwanted tumor cells in the breast tissue are the primary cause of breast can- cer. Early detection and treatment can improve the survival rates.X-ray mammogra- phy, Computed Tomography (CT), Ultra Audio (UA), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) are the conventional breast imag- ing techniques.These approaches do have certain disadvantages, though, like their high cost, ionisation effects, and time-consuming testing procedures.In this thesis a microwave imaging system for detecting breast tumor is introduced.A compact flex- ible F- slot monopole antenna is designed for Microwave Imaging (MI) of breast cancer.The proposed antenna consists of two flexible substrate materials viz denim and felt having dimensions 10 × 10 mm 2 and 10 × 15 mm 2 , respectively. Six meta- material (MTM) unit cells are placed into the antenna to improve gain, directivity, and band width. This method is innovative, low-cost and has the potential to lead to the development of a portable device that uses an enhanced iterative approach for breast imaging. The simulated results show that the proposed antenna achieves an impedance bandwidth greater than 10 dB from 5.6 GHz to 56.6 GHz. The intended antenna showed a specific absorption rate (SAR) less than 1.6 watts/KG, which is safe for human use. The proposed antenna design can thus be used for breast imaging applications to detect tumor.