Design and experimental investigation of UWB microwave imaging via MIMO beamforming

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) beamforming, a new technique for ultra-wideband microwave imaging is being investigated. An experimental model is being constructed to test the approach. Using a UWB pulse of 4 GHz central frequency and 0.4 ns pulse width, differential UWB antennas and a pseudo-breast model, the proposed MIMO approach was adopted and yielded excellent results. The results are compared to a monostatic and a bistatic delay-and-sum beamformer and it was proven that the MIMO approach was far more superior. This suggests that UWB pulse technology is indeed feasible for real tumour detection and MIMO beamforming has the potential to produce accurate tumour images with acceptable resolution.