Design of open ended waveguide probes for microwave medical imaging

Abstract

Open-ended rectangular waveguides have been conventionally used as probes in systems developed for near-field microwave imaging purposes. Microwave imaging has attained increasing interest in a wide spectrum of applications because of the ability of microwaves to show the differences in dielectric properties of materials, while maintaining a reasonable level of resolution due to their relatively short wavelength. The possibilities for use of microwaves in medical imaging is receiving particularly high levels of interest (applications such as early breast cancer detection) since microwaves are preferable to current technologies such as X-Rays, due to their non-ionising nature.

This thesis provides an overview of some microwave imaging applications currently under development by the microwave research group at Northumbria University and then goes on to present a design for an Open-ended-rectangular waveguide probe for use in the measurement of antenna radiation patterns and other microwave imaging applications. Two types of probe have been designed; the open ended waveguide probe and the open ended waveguide probe with added short slot at the waveguide aperture. The results obtained show that by adjusting the depth of the slot, the characteristics of the standard open-ended waveguide probe antenna can be altered.

Date of Award	3 Aug 2005
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University
Supervisor	David Smith (Supervisor)