2022 3rd International Conference for Emerging Technology (INCET)

Belgaum, India. May 27-29, 2022

An Ultra-wideband Antenna for breast cancer

detection using Radar Based Microwave Imaging
Shruti Awasthi Dr. Priyanka Jain
Electronics and Communication Engineering Department Electronics and Communication Engineering Department
Delhi Technological University Delhi Technological University)
New Delhi, India New Delhi, India
2022 3rd International Conference for Emerging Technology (INCET) | 978-1-6654-9499-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/INCET54531.2022.9824013

shrutiawasthi_2k20phdec06@dtu.ac.in priyankajain@dtu.ac.in

Abstract—An ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna has been
designed using high frequency simulation software (HFSS).
The antenna is incorporated with metamaterial providing high
gain over the UWB range, suitable for tumor detection. To
substantiate the work, a hemispherical 3-D breast tissue
consisting of three layers- skin, fat layer and tumor is
employed. This 3-D breast structure, containing tumor is
placed in between the proposed antennas, acting as transmitter
and receiver which determine the reflection coefficients and
transmission coefficients for both with and without tumor
cases. By studying the variations in S parameters (S11 and S21)
for both cases, tumor of sizes 2mm, 3mm and 4mm can be
easily identified.
presence of the tumor. The simulation results in terms of S
parameters provide the necessary indication for the
occurrence of tumor.
II. ANTENNA DESIGN
The 26 X 27 X 1.5 mm antenna inspired from [7] is
designed on the Rogers RO3003(tm) substrate as presented
in fig 1. The microstrip line is used for feeding with
normalized impedance of 50 Ω. A T-slot is created on the
patch along with a rectangular slot on the ground plane to
provide UWB range from 3.7 GHz-11 GHz. The dimensions
of the proposed antenna are tabulated in Table 1.

Keywords—Microwave imaging, 3-D breast structure, TABLE I. DIMENSIONS OF THE DESIGNED ANTENNA
Metamaterial, UWB antenna, permittivity. Elements Dimension
Ground 11.5 X 27 mm
I. INTRODUCTION Slot in ground 3 X 3mm
Breast cancer is one of the leading cause for the high rate Patch 26 X 27 mm
of deaths among women resulting from the existence of feed 13 X 3mm
Slots S1=S2= 3mm ,S3 = 12mm , S4 =
tumor in the breast tissues [1]. Early detection through
2mm, S5 = 8.8mm, S6= 3mm
various available techniques is the only possible solution to
reduce the death rate. The techniques available to detect the
tumor at the early stage are: X-ray, Computed tomography
(CT) scan, ultrasound [2] etc. But all these techniques have
certain shortcomings. X-ray is an aching process with low
reliability whereas ultrasound is an expensive technique,
unable to identify the indicators for the occurrence of tumor
at an early stage [3]. Knowing the demerits of above
mentioned techniques, Microwave imaging technique has
emerged out as the most comfortable, cheap and non-
invasive technique for the early finding of the breast cancer
[4-5]. In this technique, electromagnetic radiation from
transmitting antenna is incident on the breast tissues
containing tumor and since, the tumor cells have higher
permittivity, this leads to loss of power being received by the (a)Bottom view
receiver. The detection capability can be enhanced by
implementing UWB antennas with high gain and radiation
efficiency [6]. It has been observed that tumor cells have
more tendency to absorb radiations than healthy tissues.
The proposed antenna is meant to detect malignant tumor
in Breast tissues. It is based on the designing of UWB
antenna as scanning of tissues over a large frequency range
provide the significant evidence of the tumor’s presence in
the Breast tissue.
To enrich the gain of the designed UWB antenna,
metamaterial is incorporated into the design. Further, for
validation of this proposed antenna in breast cancer
detection, a 3-D breast structure is designed consisting of (b) Top view
three layers – breast skin, fat layer and tumor. The designed Fig. 1. The semicircle shaped UWB antenna a) Bottom view b) top view
antenna is used as a transmitter and receiver to detect the

978-1-6654-9499-1/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE 1

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 The proposed antenna shows the S11 < -10 dB from 3.7
GHz – 11 GHz which lies in the UWB range, represented in
the fig 2. The gain of the designed antenna is found to be
5.29 dB at 7.5 GHz as shown in fig 3.
ReflectionCoefficient vrs freq HFSSDesign1
-5.00 Curve Info
dB(S(1,1))
m1
Setup1 : Sw eep
-10.00

-15.00

-20.00
dB(S(1,1))

-25.00

-30.00

m2
-35.00
Name X Y
-40.00 m1 3.7000 -10.3812
m2 11.0000 -35.5430

-45.00

Fig 5(a): Permittivity and permeability of the metamaterial

-50.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00
Freq [GHz]

Fig. 2. S11 parameters of the semicircle patch UWB antenna

The permittivity, permeability and the refractive index of
6.00
Peak Gain vrs Freq HFSSDesign1
the designed metamaterial are computed in MATLAB using
Nicholson-Ross-Weir (NRW) method [8-9].
m1

5.00

4.00
The obtained negative values of permittivity,
permeability and refractive index are shown in fig 5 (a, b).
dB(PeakGain)

3.00

Name X Y
2.00 m1 8.0000 5.3718

1.00

0.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00
Freq [GHz]

Fig. 3. Peak Gain of the semicircle patch UWB antenna

To enhance the gain of the antenna for better detection of

the tumor, metamaterial is added into the antenna as
described in the next section.
III.
Metamaterials are the artificially designed materials
having negative permittivity and permeability, thus, negative
refractive index. These materials are generally used to
improvise the performance of antenna in terms of gain,
directivity and radiation efficiency.
Complimentary Split ring resonators (CSRR) and a
capacitive loaded strip (CLS) are designed using Rogers Ro
3003(tm) as a substrate with thickness of 1.5mm in HFSS
using finite element method (FEM) as shown in fig 4.
(a) Top view
Fig. 4. Unit cell of the metamaterial (a) top view (b) bottom view
METAMATERIAL DESIGNING
Fig. 5. (b): Refractive index of the metamaterial
From above figures, the designed metamaterial shows
negative refractive index values at 3.2 GHz, from 4 GHz -5.8
GHz and from 7.7- 11 GHz.
IV. UWB METAMATERIAL ANTENNA
The sketch of the ultra-wideband metamaterial
incorporated antenna is demonstrated in fig 6. The antenna is
implemented on Rogers Ro 3003 material with the thickness
of 1.5 mm and a dielectric constant of 3 F/m. The designed
metamaterial is placed near to the feeding line on the ground
plane which improves the gain of the proposed antenna.
.
(b) Bottom view

The rings are separated by distance of 0.2mm starting

from outer ring with dimension as 2.6mm X 2.6 mm to the
innermost ring with dimension as 1.2 mm X 1.2 mm. The
slots in between the rings are of 0.25 X 0.3138mm (after
optimization). The capacitive strip’s dimension is 3 X 0.3 (a) Top view (b) Bottom view
mm.
Fig. 6. Metamaterial based UWB antenna (a) Top view (b) Bottom view.

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 The return loss of the proposed design shows the dual cancer [10-12]. Among these antennas, Microstrip antenna is
band characteristic from 3.8-5.2GHz and 6.6-11 GHz with the most commonly used antenna for breast imaging because
three resonant peaks at 8 GHz, 9.1 GHz and 9.7 GHz as of its compact size and low cost.
shown in fig 7.
A 3-D hemispherical Breast structure is designed in
S11 parameter vrs freq
HFSS having permittivity and conductivity [13] as
HFSSDesign1
0.00
Name X Y

mentioned in Table 2.
m1 3.8408 -10.1958
m2 5.2867 -10.1280
-5.00 m4 11.0000 -14.0316
m5 8.0000 -23.6946
m6 9.1000 -26.0790
m1 m2 m8

TABLE II. DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF 3-D BREAST STRUCTURE

m7 9.7000 -25.1603
-10.00
m8 6.6000 -10.2570

m4
S11(dB)

-15.00
Breast layers Permittivity (F/m) Conductivity (S/m)
-20.00
Breast Skin 38 1.49
m5
Fat layer 5.14 0.141
-25.00 m6
m7
Tumor 67 49
-30.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00
Freq [GHz]
8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00 The 3-D breast structure is placed in between the
proposed antennas as shown in fig 9. The reflection
Fig. 7. Reflection Coefficient of the proposed antenna coefficients and transmission coefficients are computed for
the breast tissue containing tumor cells and without tumor
Due to the insertion of metamaterial, the flow of the cells.
current path gets altered resulting in the shift of the resonant
frequency and more radiation of power. The enhanced peak
gain and directivity due to the incorporation of metamaterial
is clearly visible from fig 8 (a, b).
Gain versus Frequency HFSSDesign1
14.00

12.00

10.00
dB(PeakGain)

8.00

6.00

4.00
Fig. 9. 3-D breast structure with tumor placed in between the fat layer.
2.00

The overall dimensions of the design can be observed

0.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00
Freq [GHz]
8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00
Cu
through fig 10.
Fig. 8. (a): Peak Gain of the proposed antenna

The peak gain after metamaterial incorporation into

antenna provides maximum peak gain of around 6 dB and
above 0 dB for the rest of the UWB range.
directivity versus frequency HFSSDesign1
6.50 Curve Info
dB(PeakDirectivity)
Setup1 : Sw eep
Phi='0deg' Theta='0deg'
6.00

5.50
dB(PeakDirectivity)

5.00

Fig. 10. The overall dimension of the entire design.

4.50

4.00 The reflection coefficients comparison of without tumor

3.50
and with tumor of size as 2mm, 3mm and 4mm are depicted
in fig 11(a.b, c). The dotted line represents the reflection
3.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00
coefficient of antenna in the presence of tumor and solid line
represents the values of reflection coefficient of antenna
Freq [GHz]

Fig 8 (b): Directivity of the proposed antenna without tumor in the Breast.
S11 comparison with tumor radius as 2mm HFSSDesign1

The proposed antenna acts as the transmitter and receiver 0.00 Curve Info
dB(S(1,1))
Setup1 : Sw eep

to identify the occurrence of tumor in the breast tissue using dB(S(1,1))_1

Imported

radar based microwave imaging technique. -12.50

w ithout tumor
Reflection Coefficient (dB)

V. RADAR BASED MICROWAVE IMAGING w ith tumor

Microwave imaging is broadly classified into two types – -25.00

microwave tomography and radar based imaging. Radar

based microwave imaging is an effective technique used for -37.50

early diagnosis of tumor in breast tissue. It is highly 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00
Freq [GHz]
8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00

sensitive, relaxing and the harmless method in comparison to Fig. 11. (a): Reflection coefficients comparison between without tumor
microwave tomography. Numerous broadband microwave and tumor radius as 2mm in the breast tissue.
antennas have been constructed for early detection of breast

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 0.00
w ithout_tumor 5.5000 -5.7791
Name X Y S11 comparison with tumor radius as 3mm HFSSDesign1
Curve Info therefore, this system can be used for the early detection of
tumor in the breast tissues.
w ith_tumor 5.6000 -12.7738 dB(S(1,1))
w ithout_tumor Setup1 : Sw eep
dB(S(1,1))_1
Imported

VII. CONCLUSION
-10.00
w ith_tumor
Reflection Coefficient (dB)

-20.00
A high gain UWB antenna with the addition of
metamaterial has been designed for the early tumor detection
in the Breast. The proposed antenna provides good gain and
-30.00
directivity of around 6dB. A hemispherical 3-D breast
structure containing tumor has been detected by the designed
-40.00
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00 9.00 10.00 11.00
antenna by observing the disparity in the S-parameters for
Freq [GHz]
with and without tumor scenarios. Thus, it is possible to
Fig 11 (b): Reflection coefficients comparison between without tumor and detect the tumor of size up to 4mm using the proposed
tumor radius as 3mm in the breast tissue.
design. The future scope of this work is to utilize the results
s11 comparison with tumor radius as 4mm HFSSDesign1 obtained from S11 and S21 parameters in the image
reconstruction to detect the exact location and the size of
0.00 Curve Info
dB(S(1,1))
Setup1 : Sw eep
dB(S(1,1))_1
Imported tumor in the Breast tissue. And also to identify the presence
of tumor by scanning the entire breast tissues through
-12.50
placement of antennas around the various points on the
Reflection Coefficient (dB)

breast structure.

-25.00
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-37.50
3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00
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Imported
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-25.00
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-30.00
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we can detect the tumor’s presence in the Breast tissue and

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