Compound Radar Approach for Breast Imaging

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Microwave Imaging
• Radar Systems

Background:

• Multistatic radar offers more scattering information than monostatic radar per transmission angle.
• Detecting tumor targets in breast phantoms using multistatic radar is a known challenge.
• Accurate breast cancer detection requires numerous multistatic channels to calibrate skin reflections, reduce clutter, and increase dynamic range.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a novel compound imaging approach to overcome physical constraints in multistatic radar breast scanning.
• To improve the imaging capabilities of multistatic radar for detecting tumor targets in breast phantoms.
• To enhance the accuracy and clarity of microwave radar breast profiles.

Main Methods:

• Increased the number of transmit-receive (TX-RX) paths by performing multiple breast scans with varying array positions.
• Developed and applied a skin calibration method to minimize unwanted skin reflections from each channel.
• Utilized a receive beamforming method to compound data from each scan, generating a microwave radar breast profile.

Main Results:

• The compound imaging technique demonstrated improved skin calibration across various phantom complexities.
• Small tumor targets were clearly detected, even in challenging positions and sizes.
• Undesirable clutter within the breast radar profile was substantially reduced.

Conclusions:

• The proposed compound imaging method effectively enhances multistatic radar breast scanning capabilities.
• This approach overcomes physical antenna array limitations, improving tumor detection and reducing artifacts.
• The technique shows significant promise for accurate and reliable microwave radar-based breast imaging.