Skin Cancer Detection through Microwaves: Validation on Phantom Measurements

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and demonstration of a heterogeneous phantom simulating human forearm having an inclusion mimicking a skin cancer. Cortical bone, adipose-muscle, and cancerous tumours are simulated at different layers of our proposed phantom. A number of combinations have been tested for tissue-equivalent dielectric properties and the final design has been selected by considering the similarity of their dielectric properties with the respective human tissues. Ultrawideband (UWB) microwave imaging methods are then applied to the phantom. The S21 parameter measurements are collected in an anechoic chamber environment and processed via Huygens principle (HP) technique. The tumour is successfully detected after applying appropriate artefact removal procedure. S21 subtraction using two sets of measurements has been employed to remove artefacts, i.e. the image of the transmitter. The ability to successfully apply HP to detect and locate a skin cancer type inclusion in a multilayerd cylindrical phantom has been proved.