We overview the research trend on microwave imaging for early breast cancer detection. The technologies have two categories: ultra-wide band (UWB) radar that reconstructs the scattering power distribution in the breast and inverse scattering problem that reconstructs the dielectric properties distribution. We have developed a clinical equipment using UWB radar and carried out clinical test 4 years ago. Through the experiments, we concluded that the UWB radar was insufficient for the clinical equipment, because the UWB radar cannot discriminate cancerous tumor and other lesions. Therefore, we have been studying inverse scattering. It is a challenging task to develop an equipment using inverse scattering technologies. We have proposed a microwave mammography that has four features: (1) sensor with breast fixing by absorption, (2) small sensor with multipolarization, (3) image reconstruction program linking the commercial EM simulator, and (4) hybrid imaging method using UWB radar and inverse scattering.
We propose an effective method for designing multibeam dielectric lens antennas. A genetic algorithm (GA) with multiobjective optimization is adopted to balance gain against sidelobe level. The lens shapes and the position of each feed are associated with chromosomes. The gain and sidelobe level are evaluated by a pareto ranking method. The method yields the distribution of the objective function values and the corresponding antenna structures.
The microwave mammography for the clinical test was experimentally manufactured. A phantom made of the diacetin solution was successfully imaged. It is confirmed through the clinicalevaluation that there was no problems in use of the sensor featured by the suction fixation.
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