Investigations of signal reproducibility and influences of vital signs for microwave breast cancer imaging: An initial volunteer trial

This paper presents the results of a first self-experiment of one healthy volunteer by means of ultra-wideband sensing. Measurements are performed by M-sequence technology. First, we investigate the reproducibility of single measurement trials using a MIMO ultra-wideband breast imaging system. Results show that variations caused by a repositioning of the breast are higher than expected tumor responses, derived from phantom measurements. In a second scenario we use a two-channel ultra-wideband system with a sufficient measurement rate to consider the influence of human body vital signs. Investigations clearly show a detectability of breathing as well as heart activity.