A Low-Profile Wideband Antenna with Reliable Experimental Microwave Imaging for Early Breast Cancer Detection

This paper presents a wideband antenna utilizing a stubline and notch-staircase shape on the radiating patch for microwave imaging application. The antenna array consisting of up to 12 units is arranged around foam and glass marble objects, mimicking a breast phantom and tumor, respectively. Microwave Radar-based Imaging Toolbox (MERIT) is used for generating detected object images. The proposed antenna demonstrates a fractional bandwidth of 130.1% and a realized gain ranging from 1 to 5 dB across the frequency range of 1.78 to 8.41 GHz. Simulation results highlight the time domain performance, including input and received signal response, as well as group delay. The study further establishes that increasing the number of antennas enhances image resolution. The findings showcase the potential of the proposed wideband antenna in early breast cancer detection.