MEDICAL MICROWAVE SENSOR LABORATORY

• Breast imaging for the early detection of breast cancer

The ability of microwaves to penetrate non-ionizing matter at relatively low transmission power makes them ideal for sensor technology in optically invisible areas (safety technology, material testing) and therefore also for medical imaging. In active microwave imaging, the object under investigation is irradiated with very low-power microwaves (in the range of a few mW!). The reflected or transmitted received signals allow conclusions to be drawn about the composition of the examined objects. Application research focuses on the breast and the detection and localization of breast cancer, among other things. The background to this is that the scattering behavior of tissue is significantly influenced by its water content and that stronger reflections are to be expected on tumor tissue than on healthy tissue due to the increased metabolism and the associated increased water content. Microwaves are a promising alternative because the dielectric contrast between glandular and fatty tissue is relatively high, the painful compression of the breast (mammography) can be avoided and significantly lower system costs can be expected compared to breast MRI. On the other hand, there is the challenge of using modern signal processing methods to increase the resolution, which is initially inadequate for physical reasons, to such an extent that clinically usable information can be derived. As part of research projects, a demonstrator has been developed with which breast phantoms can be examined.