Development of active microwave imaging techniques for applications In mammograpy

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cause of non-skin malignancy in women and a leading cause offemale mortality. A potentially important strategy for reducing this menace is the 'detection at an early stage. However, conventional mammographic detection techniques have many drawbacks and often cause harm to patients. The invention of non-invasive and nonionizing microwave technique, to reveal the internal structure of biological objects thus became a break through in the field of medical diagnostics. When exposed to microwaves, breast tumor exhibits electrical properties that are significantly different from that of healthy breast tissue and hence false free detection of the tumor in terms of dielectric contrast is possible. An introductory chapter which deals with various imaging techniques, their advantages and disadvantages is given as Chapter 1 of this thesis. The advantages of microwave imaging for breast cancer detection, its classifications and the two approaches of active microwave imaging microwave tomographic imaging with measured scattered signals and confocal microwave imaging with measured reflected signals are also addressed here.