Design Approach of a K-Band FMCW Radar for Breast Cancer Detection using a Full System-Level EM Simulation

Abstract

The use of microwaves as an imaging technique in biomedical applications has attracted a great deal of interest in recent years. In this work we present the system level design approach of an FMCW radar system for the detection of breast cancer operating from 14 to 27 GHz with a depth resolution of less than 5 mm. To do this, we simulated a complete setup with transmitting and receiving antenna, skin, fat and tumorous tissues using a 3D electromagnetic solver. Based on these results, we performed a systematic full level modelling to obtain the resulting intermediate frequencies for different tumor depths. The link between system modelling and 3D simulation is possible because the total simulation volume is very small compared to typical radar applications. The workflow is shown schematically in Fig. 1. This approach can of course also be transferred to other comparable applications. The obtained results show that an FMCW radar system is able to detect tumors in breast tissue with a high fat content and to distinguish between different depths. Based on our approach, we also show a possibility for 3D imaging of female breasts.