Method and system for microwave scanning of biological tissue
OwnerJeremie BOURQUI, Elise FEARinventors
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Abstract
Disclosed are systems and methods of microwave scanning of biological tissue, which enable the measurement of biological tissue response to microwave signals without other unwanted signals, hence removing the need for suboptimal filtering techniques. The collected signals may be conditioned using novel techniques. Also disclosed are systems and methods of image reconstruction of biological tissues, which provide quantitative images related to the electrical properties of the tissues with a repeatable and stable technique.
Claims19
A method for microwave scanning of biological tissue, comprising:
- activating antenna elements, in an antenna set,
- wherein the antenna set includes a transmitting antenna element in a transmitting antenna array, and one or more receiving antenna elements in a receiving antenna array;
- operating at least one microwave transmitter to generate an interrogation microwave signal for transmission, via the transmitting antenna element, into a biological tissue;
- receiving, via at least one microwave receiver, one or more received microwave signals from each of the one or more receiving antenna elements;
- applying pre-conditioning to each of the received microwave signals to generate corresponding conditioned microwave signals, wherein the pre-conditioning isolates tissue response properties from extraneous response factors;
- analyzing the conditioned microwave signals to determine one or more tissue response properties, associated with the biological tissue;
- and
- generating an output based on the determined one or more tissue response properties.
A system for microwave scanning of biological tissue, comprising:
- a transmitting and a receiving antenna array, each antenna array comprising a plurality of antenna elements,
- wherein the antenna arrays are separated along an axis, by an axial separation distance, to define a scanning region for receiving biological tissue;
- at least one microwave transmitter coupled to the transmitting antenna array;
- at least one microwave receiver coupled to the receiving antenna array;
- and
- a controller coupled the at least one microwave transmitter and receiver, and operable to perform the methods of claim 1. 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one microwave transmitter comprises a plurality of microwave transmitters, each microwave transmitter coupled to a separate antenna element of the transmitting antenna array, and
- the at least one microwave receiver comprises a plurality of microwave receivers, each microwave receiver coupled to a separate antenna element of the receiving antenna array.
Antenna assembly for use with a system for microwave scanning of biological tissue, comprising:
- at least two antenna arrays, wherein the antenna arrays are separated along an axis, by an axial separation distance, to define a scanning region for receiving biological tissue;
- and
- a dielectric covering material coupled to and overlaying each antenna array, wherein the dielectric covering material contacts the biological tissue inserted in the imaging region defined.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.