The work reported in this thesis is motivated by the need for new screening techniques for detecting early-stage breast tumors. In recent years, pulsed microwave imaging in the gigahertz range has been suggested as a promising complementing methodology to the currently existing detection and imaging modalities. This technique is based on significant electrical contrast between the cancerous and healthy breast tissue in the microwave range. To exploit this electrical contrast for imaging purposes, a broadband trans-receiving antenna is placed near the breast surface. The antenna launches a pulse and then collects the backscattered response, used for detection of the potentially underlying tumor. In our work, we examine tumor detection capabilities of the "Dark Eyes" antenna, recently reported in the literature and suggested as antenna of choice for pulsed microwave breast imaging due to its compact size, ease of fabrication and cost-effectiveness. The simulation tool, SEMCAD-X, is based on the finite-different time-domain method and is used throughout this work to construct the realistic hemi-spherical breast model and analyze its interaction with the microwave radiated from the antenna source.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.99543 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Tavassolian, Negar. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Engineering (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.) |
| Rights | © Negar Tavassolian, 2006 |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002572611, proquestno: AAIMR28627, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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