Breast Cancer Detection Based on Multi-Slotted Patch Antenna at ISM Band

The present work designed and investigated a 3D basic model for breast cancer detection at the ISM band. The model consists of two multi-slotted rectangular patch antennas and a three-layer breast phantom containing two tumors. A multi-slotted antenna was designed at 2.45 GHz using CST STUDIO SUITE 2018, where the simulated results showed a return loss better than -35 dB and attended more than 77 MHz bandwidth. The diagnosis approach is based on exploiting the electrical properties (frequency dependent) of breast tissues, i.e., mass density, relative permittivity, and conductivity. Once the proposed slotted antenna radiates electromagnetic signals toward the breast model (with and without tumors), the radiation properties in terms of the scattering parameters (S₁₁ and S₂₁), the electrical field, the power flow, the current density, and the power loss density were altered. As a result, the values of these radiation parameters increased when tumors were implanted inside the breast model, informing the presence of cancerous tissues. Moreover, the specific absorption rate (SAR) was estimated as a function of input powers, where the proposed antenna showed a set of low SAR values compared to the IEEE standard of 1.6 W/kg, validating its potential use for diagnosing purposes. The simulated results indicated the prospective use of two slotted antennas (in the first instance) to detect multiple tumors which could be a challenging task using a single-element antenna, where the ultimate goal is to realize a compact antenna array to detect multi-tumors.