Dermatological verification of micromachined millimeter-wave skin-cancer probe

This paper presents for the first time measurement data on in-vivo dermatological experiments verifying the performance of a millimeter-wave medical probe designed for skin-cancer diagnosis. The probe consists of a micromachined silicon-core dielectric-rod waveguide, which is metallized and tapered at its tip as a compromise for high field concentration at the probe-to-skin interface, high sensitivity, high resolution, and an interaction volume depth adapted to diagnosing early-stage melanoma. The in-vivo dermatological tests on humans comprise: (1) measurement at different skin sites; (2) measurements of skin burns; (3) scanning the profile of benign skin neoplasma; (4) standardized dermatological tests with skin-irritant in 5 concentrations on 5 test persons, including monitoring of the healing process and reference measurements using a commercial transepidermal water loss instrument. All tests were successfully completed and show that millimeter-wave sensors are well capable of detecting physiologic changes of the skin and experimental skin reactions.