Design of Two-Element Probe Antenna for UWB Near-Field Imaging

Yifan Wang (1)* and Marek E. Bialkowski (1) (1) School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, Australia 4072 E-mail: yfwang@itee.uq.edu.au and meb@itee.uq.edu.au Introduction Recent years have shown an increased interest in using active microwave techniques to image various dielectric objects. Particular attention has been given to the application of these techniques to the biomedical area. One of the prominent examples is the detection and location of a tumor within the womans breast using ultra wideband (UWB) microwave radar technique [1]. The UWB microwave radar imaging principle is based on different dielectric properties of healthy and unhealthy human tissues in the microwave frequency region. When launched into a human body, a UWB microwave signal is the subject of scattering due to varying dielectric properties of the tissues. In particular, healthy and unhealthy tissues produce different levels of scattering. Therefore, the received signal can be used to form the scattering map representing healthy and unhealthy parts of the imaged body. In the case of womans breast, the regions causing a large scattering can be identified as cancerous tissues. The main challenge in using this technique is a large reflection of a UWB microwave signal at the border of imaged body. This large magnitude signal masks weak signals which are due to scattering by small irregularities within the body. One solution to overcome this problem is presented in this paper. It is proposed that the reflection due to the imaging body interface can be overcome by applying the monopulse radar technique involving a two-element UWB probe antenna. Assuming that the dielectric properties of the imaged body are symmetric with respect to the axis of the 180 out of phase fed 2element array, the signal at the output of this probe antenna is zero and thus the adverse effect of the air-image body interface is eliminated. In turn, when the imaged body includes any asymmetric features (for example unhealthy/cancerous tissues) which are located at off-set positions with respect to the axis of the out-phase-fed 2-element probe antenna, the received echo signal is non-zero. Consequently, the 2-element array antenna sees only the off-axis tissue irregularities. The array can also use an additional in-phase feeding network. It is necessary when the target is symmetric for all locations of the scanning probe. The paper provides full design details of the 2-element UWB probe antenna including its feeding network and demonstrates that it can be effectively used to detect and locate targets inside a cylindrical dielectric body emulating womans breast. Design Figure 1 shows configuration of a UWB microwave imaging system employing a 2element UWB probe antenna. The system includes a cylindrical scanning mechanical sub-system and a Vector Network Analyser (VNA) with time-domain processing capability. In an alternative arrangement, an electronically switched array can be used in place of the mechanical scanning sub-system. The VNA transmits and receives short duration pulses using a step-frequency pulse synthesis technique [2].

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The configuration of the UWB antenna used for constructing the 2-element probe is shown in Figure 2. It is a compact (36mm 36mm) UWB tapered slot antenna (TSA) similar to the one reported in [3]. The difference is that it includes elliptical cuts which make its radiation pattern directive across UWB. As in [3], it is designed with Ansoft HFSS assuming Rogers RT6010LM substrate of relative dielectric constant 10.2 and thickness of 0.635mm. In the array, the two elements are positioned vertically. They are inclined at some angle as they were in a circular array. In order to avoid adverse effects of mutual coupling on return loss and pulse fidelity, the two elements are spaced by a sufficient distance. For the distance of 27mm between the antenna tips and 45mm between their rear points the isolation is higher than 18dB across UWB. This spacing results in a small ringing effect of a Gaussian pulse used for UWB imaging purposes. The configuration of a novel UWB 180 hybrid (magic T) for use with the 2-element array is shown in Figure 3. The device is uniplanar with its ports formed by microstriplines. It is etched on two sides of substrate, one carrying microstrips (dark blue colour) and the other one slots (white colour). In order to achieve UWB performance, the hybrid uses microstrip-slot transitions and splits the in-phase port to allow unification of the in- and out-phase dividers. The device is designed using Ansoft HFSS. Assuming Neltec NH9338 substrate with a relative dielectric constant of 3.38 and thickness of 0.508mm, the device dimensions are: W=22mm, L=28mm, Rs=Rm=2mm, D1=1.1mm, d1=0.9mm, D2=D3=0.95mm, D4=1.45mm, S=0.2mm, F=4mm, r=2.5mm, b=13.6mm. Results Figure 4 shows return losses and radiation patterns of the TSA element operating in isolation. The antenna exhibits a10dB return loss almost across 3.1-10.6 GHz. The radiation pattern is approximately constant across this band and is wide in the H-plane and narrow in the E-plane. Fig. 5 shows the amplitude and phase characteristics of the designed magic T. This 180 hybrid exhibits a well-balanced power division between the output ports and good quality return losses of the out-of-phase (difference) and in-phase (summation) ports across the band from 3 to 11GHz. The isolation between the difference and signal ports is excellent and the differential phase shift is close to the ideal case of 180 and 0 across this band. The validity of the proposed imaging concept using the 180 out-of-phase fed 2-element probe antenna is demonstrated for a circular plastic container with a diameter of 100mm, thickness of 1mm and height of 70mm filled with a vegetable oil with a relative permittivity, r of 3.5 to 4.2 and negligible losses across the frequency band from 2 to 12 GHz. The target is a 9mm diameter conducting circular cylinder placed vertically inside the container. The proof of concept is accomplished using the signal data acquired from full-wave CST Microwave Studio simulations. The simulations are performed in the 3.110.6 GHz band. The short duration Gaussian pulses are used to illuminate the container. In simulations, it is assumed that the probe is located 25mm from the container. It is moved over a circle at an angular step of 30. The CST simulated signals acquired from the out-of-phase fed 2-element array are used to reconstruct an internal image of the container by applying a confocal imaging algorithm similar to that described in [1]. Figure 6 shows the imaging result when the container includes a 9mm diameter conducting cylinder. The targets presence and location is clearly identified while the background signal is completely removed. In the chosen example, the target is located in the off-axis position for the majority of the 2-probe antenna locations. Only at one

position the target is on the probes axis. This explains a small asymmetry observed in the image of the target in Fig. 6. Conclusion This paper has reported a microwave imaging system employing a monopulse radar technique to eliminate adverse effects of strong reflection from the air-imaged body interface. This technique is realized using a newly constructed ultra wideband twoelement probe antenna fed by a 180 hybrid. The validity of the proposed system has been verified via full-wave EM simulations. Using the signal data obtained from the outof-phase fed UWB probe and by applying a confocal image reconstruction algorithm, the presence of a 9mm-diameter cylindrical target inside the 100mm diameter container filled with vegetable oil has been detected by just visual inspection of the produced image. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Australian Research Council in the form of Discovery Project Grants DP0986429 and DP1095746. References: [1] E.C. Fear, S.C. Hagness, P.M. Meaney, M. Okoniewski and M.A. Stuchly, Enhancing breast tumor detection with near-field imaging IEEE Microwave Magazine, pp. 48-56, March 2002. [2] M.E. Bialkowski, W.C. Khor and S. Crozier, "A planar microwave imaging system with step-frequency synthesized pulse using different calibration methods," Microwave and Optical Techn. Letters, vol. 48, No 3, pp. 511-516, 2006. [3] M. Bialkowski and Y. Wang, A size-reduced exponentially tapered slot antenna with corrugations for directivity improvement, Proc. 2009 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference, paper #1718, pp. 1-4, Singapore, Dec 7-10, 2009.

Fig. 2 Fig. 1 Configuration of UWB imaging system including a 2-element probe antenna.

UWB Tapered Slot Antenna.

(a) Fig. 3 Configuration of UWB 180 hybrid (magic T).

(b) Fig. 5 Amplitude (a) and phase characteristics (b) of the designed magic T. (a)

(b) Fig. 4 TSA return loss (a) and 3D radiation patterns (b) as a function of frequency.

Fig. 6 Imaging result for a 9 mm diameter conducting target located 25mm from a wall inside of a 100mm diameter plastic container filled with vegetable oil.