Microstrip Patch Antenna Design for Early Breast Cancer Detection

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death among women all over the world. It is the abnormal growth of breast tissues in multistage process. As the stage increases, the chances of treatment and probability of survival of patient decreases. Hence, early detection and diagnosis of breast cancer is must. Microwave imaging technique for early detection of breast cancer is a promising technique to detect tumor and it also have several advantages over other existing techniques for breast cancer detection, such as Breast Self-Examination (BSE), Clinical Breast Examination (CBE), Breast Ultrasound, Computerized Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Mammography and other breast screening methods. One of them is non-ionizing radiations. Other advantages include portability, inexpensive system and safe for human body. Microwave imaging employs microstrip patch antenna as its integral part, for transmitting and receiving microwaves. Microstrip patch antenna as name suggests is a low weight, smaller size antenna. Depending upon substrate material, microstrip patch antennas can be categorized as flexible and non-flexible antennas. Flexible microstrip patch antennas, mostly consisting of textile materials are becoming the preferred choice for most of the researchers. This paper presents recent trends in microstrip patch antenna design for early breast cancer detection and a comparison among them in terms of substrate, feeding techniques, Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), E and H field, Return Loss, Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) and some other parameters.