Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells grow uncontrollably, destroy surrounding tissue and eventually spread to other parts of the body, often leading to death. According to the American Cancer Society cancer causes accounts for 13% of all deaths. Much of the time cancer can be treated if diagnosed early. Considerable study is currently being undertaken to investigate tissue properties and their use in detecting cancer at an early stage through non invasive and non surgical methods. Oblique Incidence Diffuse Reflectance Spectrometry (OIDRS) is one such method. This thesis reports the design, fabrication and testing of a new miniaturized optical sensor probe with "side viewing" capability for oblique incidence diffuse reflectance spectrometry. The sensor probe consists of a lithographically patterned polymer waveguides chip and three micromachined positioning substrates and source/collection fibers to achieve 45 degree light incidence and collection of spatially resolved diffuse reflectance. The probe was tested at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota. The test results show that the probe is capable of collecting data which can be analyzed to select image features to differentiate the cancerous tissue from non cancerous tissue. Using these probes, diffuse reflectance of human esophageal surface has been successfully measured for differentiation of cancerous tissues from normal ones.

La technique Storing Matter a pour objectif d’améliorer la sensibilité et la quantification des analyses par SIMS. Elle consiste à découpler la phase de pulvérisation de l’échantillon de la phase d’analyse. Pour cela, la matière pulvérisée par bombardement ionique est déposée en sous-monocouche sur un collecteur optimisé. Le dépôt est ensuite analysé par SIMS. La probabilité d’ionisation de la matière ne dépend plus de son environnement initial (“effet de matrice”), mais de la surface du collecteur. Le choix du collecteur permet un gain de sensibilité et la quantification des concentrations de l’échantillon initial. L’efficacité de la technique dépend du choix du collecteur et d’un facteur de collection ? caractérisant la phase de pulvérisation-dépôt. Dans ce travail, nous avons étudié la pulvérisation et l’émission de la matière sous bombardement ionique pour optimiser ce facteur ?. Nous avons mis au point un dispositif expérimental ainsi qu’un protocole d’analyse par SIMS qui nous a permis d’étudier la distribution angulaire sous un bombardement d’ions Cs+ avec une incidence oblique pour différents paramètres d’impact. L’étude menée sur quatre cibles (Si, Ge, InP et GaAs) a montré que la distribution angulaire est de forme cosn (?-?Max) pour une énergie et un angle d’impact de respectivement 2 à 10 keV et 30° à 60°. L’exposant n est ~2 tandis que la direction d’émission préférentielle ?Max varie de la normale à la surface (0°) jusqu’à un angle d’émission de 35° dans la direction spéculaire au faisceau en fonction de l’énergie d’impact et de l’angle d’incidence. Ces résultats appliqués à Storing Matter ont permis de déterminer la configuration optimum pour une collection maîtrisée en fonction du bombardement / The Storing Matter technique aims at optimising the sensitivity and quantitativeness of SIMS analysis. It consists in decoupling the sputtering of the specimen from the subsequent analysis step. The specimen is sputtered by means of an ion beam. The emitted particles are deposited at a sub-monolayer level on an optimised collector. The deposit is subsequently analysed in a SIMS instrument. The ionisation probability in SIMS does not depend anymore on the initial sample composition (“Matrix effect”), but on the collector surface chemistry. The collector is chosen in order to increase the sensitivity and to quantify the specimen. The efficiency of this new technique depends on the collector choice and on the collection factor ? characterising the sputter-deposition step. In this work, the sputtering and emission processes under ionic bombardment have been studied in order to optimise this factor ?. We developed an experimental set-up and an analysis protocol based on SIMS that allows us to study the angular distribution under Cs+ bombardment with an oblique incidence for different impact parameters. Four targets (Si, Ge, InP and GaAs) were studied. The results show that the angular distribution is shaped as a cosine function cosn (?-?Max) for impact energies between 2 and 10 keV and for incidence angles from 30 to 60°. Under these conditions, the exponent n is ~2 and the preferential direction of emission ?Max varies from the normal to the surface to 35° in the specular direction in function of the impact energy and the incidence angle. The results allowed to find the best settings for the Storing Matter technique to control the sputtered matter collection in function of the bombardment parameters

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an imaging method that is considered the optical analog to ultrasound, using the technique of optical interferometry to construct two-dimensional depth-resolved images of tissue microstructure. With a resolution on the order of 10 μm and a penetration depth of 1-2 mm in highly scattering tissue, fiber optics-coupled OCT is an ideal modality for the inspection of the mouse colon with its miniaturization capabilities. In the present study, the complementary modalities laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), which offers information on the biochemical makeup of the tissue, and surface magnifying chromoendoscopy, which offers high contrast surface visualization, are combined with OCT in endoscopic imaging systems for the greater specificity and sensitivity in the differentiation between normal and neoplastic tissue, and for the visualization of biomarkers which are indicative of early events in colorectal carcinogenesis. Oblique incidence reflectometry (OIR) also offers advantages, allowing the calculation of bulk tissue optical properties for use as a diagnostic tool. The study was broken up into three specific sections. First, a dual-modality OCTLIF imaging system was designed, capable of focusing light over 325-1300 nm using a reflective distal optics design. A dual-modality fluorescence-based SMC-OCT system was then designed and constructed, capable of resolving the stained mucosal crypt structure of the in vivo mouse colon. The SMC-OCT instrument's OIR capabilities were then modeled, as a modified version of the probe was used measure tissue scattering and absorption coefficients.

Les matériaux absorbants des ondes électromagnétiques sont des éléments importants pour l'évaluation de nombreux systèmes électroniques militaires mais également civils. Ces matériaux sont utilisés, par exemple, pour la réduction des interférences électromagnétiques (EMI) dans divers composants sans fils, la réduction de la surface équivalente radar (SER) ou comme absorbants à l'intérieur des chambres de mesures. C’est cette dernière application qui est visée par les travaux de cette thèse. L’objectif de mes travaux de thèse est d’optimiser des matériaux absorbants utilisés dans les chambres anéchoïques. La géométrie et la composition du matériau absorbant sont les deux paramètres qui influencent la capacité d’absorption de l’onde électromagnétique par un matériau. Ce seront donc les deux pistes d’optimisation explorés durant cette thèse. Notre but est d’obtenir les absorbants présentant les plus faibles coefficients de réflexion et de transmission, soit une absorption élevée, ceci dans une large bande de fréquence. / The electromagnetic absorber materials are important elements for evaluating various electronic and civil systems. These materials are used, for example, for minimizing electromagnetic interferences (EMI) in different wireless components, for minimizing the radar cross section (RCS) or for usage in anechoic chambers. The latter application is the targeted work in this thesis. The objective of this work is to optimize the absorber materials used in anechoic chambers. The geometry and the material composition are the two parameters that influence the absorption of the electromagnetic wave inside the material itself. This are the two topics of optimization explored in this thesis. Our objective is to obtain material absorbers that have low reflection and transmission coefficients and high absorption in a large frequency band.

In this thesis the major objective is the implementation of the inverse neural network concept in the design of printed lens (transmitarray) antenna. As it is computationally extensive to perform full-wave simulations for entire transmitarray structure and thereafter perform optimization, the idea is to generate a design database assuming that a unit cell of the transmitarray is situated inside a 2D infinite periodic structure. This way we generate a design database of transmission coefficient by varying the unit cell parameters. Since, for the actual design, we need dimensions for each cell on the transmitarray aperture and to do this we need to invert the design database. The major contribution of this thesis is the proposal and the implementation of database inversion methodology namely inverse neural network modelling. We provide the algorithms for carrying out the inversion process as well as provide check results to demonstrate the reliability of the proposed methodology. Finally, we apply this approach to design a transmitarray antenna, and measure its performance.