Analysis of the Effect of Antenna-to-Head Distance for Microwave Brain Imaging Applications

Wideband antennas are extensively used in many medical applications, which require the placement of the antenna on or near a human body. The performance of the antenna should remain compliant with the requirements of the target application when placed in front of the subject under investigation. Since the performance of an antenna varies when the distance from the subject is changed, the effect of varying the distance of a miniaturized wideband antipodal Vivaldi antenna from a numerical head model is analyzed in this work. The analyses can demonstrate whether the antenna performance and its effect on the head aptly comply with the requirements for the intended application of microwave brain imaging. It is observed that, when the antenna-head distance is increased, the background noise in the received signal is enhanced, whereas when the distance is reduced, the radiation-safety consideration on the head is affected. Hence, the optimum distance should provide a good compromise in terms of both signal receptibility by the antenna and radiation safety on the head. As the optimum antenna-to-head distance may vary with the change in antenna, measurement system, and the surrounding medium, this work presents a basic analysis procedure to find the appropriate antenna distance for the intended application.