3738
10, OCTOBER 2011
Evaluation of Dielectric Resonator Sensor for
Near-Field Breast Tumor Detection
Kenny Seungwoo Ryu, Member, IEEE, and Ahmed A. Kishk, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—An H-shape ultrawideband (UWB) dielectric res-
onator (DR) mounted on a vertical ground plane edge with
broadside radiation patterns is evaluated for breast tumor detec-
tion. In order to scan the whole breast, the proposed DR sensor
can be attached to the skin without a need for matching medium.
The sensor has a wide half power beamwidth, therefore path
loss is reduced. In addition, the DR sensor provides very good
pulse-preserving performance such as low distortion and constant
gain characteristics with high efficiency. The small footprints
of the sensor over the skin allows for more sensors nearby or
in contact with the breast skin. Suitability of the compact DR
sensor for breast tumor detection can be seen from frequency
domain analyses as well as time domain analyses. Accurate tumor
response is obtained due to the compact size and very good sensor
characteristics.
Index Terms—Breast tumor detection, dielectric resonator an-
tennas (DRAs), ultrawideband (UWB).
I. INTRODUCTION
B REAST cancer is one of the most common cancers for
women [1]. Early diagnosis is the key to survive from
breast cancer. The radar-based UWB microwave imaging
techniques have attracted great attention since Hagness et
al. proposed the possibility of breast tumor detection using
UWB signal at 1998 [2], [3]. This technique uses a broadband
microwave pulse and reconstructs the backscattered energy
inside the breast based on the significant contrast in dielectric
properties between normal breast tissue and malignant tumors.
Radar-based UWB microwave imaging technology research
can be divided into two parts. One is the imaging formulation
techniques, such as the DAS, MIST, RCB, APES, ATAPES
and DCRCB methods [4]–[9]. The other is UWB sensor design
[10]–[15].
Optimized ideal UWB antennas have sufficient impedance
matching bandwidth to transmit short impulse signals, high ra-
diation efficiency, constant gain, constant group delay, and con-
sistent uniform radiation pattern to avoid undesirable distortions
of the radiated and received pulse [16]. Unfortunately, no UWB
antenna can achieve all of the ideal UWB performance. While
the UWB impedance matching bandwidth based on FCC reg-
ulations is mainly concerned with communication systems, a
high quality UWB antenna is required to transmit and receive
Manuscript received December 15, 2010; revised March 04, 2011; accepted
March 07, 2011. Date of publication August 08, 2011; date of current version
October 05, 2011.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of
Mississippi, University, MI 38677 USA (e-mail: kennyryu77@yahoo.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2011.2163790
0018-926X/$26.00 © 2011 IEEE
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO.
short pulses with low distortions and high efficiency in order to
obtain reliable data from tumors. Although many sensors were
proposed before, it is not clear what would be the most appro-
priate sensor design for breast tumor detection.
First criterion is related to the sensor bandwidth requirement.
It expresses the tradeoff relation between resolution and tissue
penetration. Therefore, we need to design sensor, which has
appropriate bandwidth for breast tumor detection. Second
criterion is related to the dispersion/distortion. In order to
reduce signal dispersion/distortion, the constant gain and group
delay are important characteristic for the pulse-preserving
performance. Third criterion is the sensor efficiency. This is
important to compensate low gain characteristics of UWB
antennas. However, the sensor efficiency within the UWB
operating frequencies is from 60% to 90% [17]–[19]. Recently
proposed UWB dielectric resonator antennas (DRAs) mounted
on a vertical ground plane edge [20], [21] achieve higher than
95% antenna efficiency within the operating UWB band, be-
cause one of the attractive of the DRAs characteristics is their
high radiation efficiency. Fourth criterion is the compactness
of the sensor size. All of the imaging formulation techniques
assume that the sensor is a point source, which originally comes
from the phase center concept. However, no real antenna is
small enough to be assumed a point source, so the radiation
must appear to emanate from a larger area. Even though the
point source assumption is common for Global Positioning
System (GPS) radar imaging, sensors for Global Network
Satellite System (GNSS) applications still suffer due to the
phase center variation (PCV) to obtain more suitable position
information [22], [23]. The reason is that the phase center is
not a fixed position. This implies that the point source has a
varied position too. Compared with GNSS applications, it may
be more difficult to apply the point source assumption in the
breast cancer detection application because the sensor size is
quite large compared with the scanned area for tumor detection
and the distance between the sensor and the target is small.
Therefore, a very compact sensor is more desirable for breast
tumor detection and the small aperture of the compact sensor
can provide more nodes or footprints near or in contact with
the breast skin.
The main difference between proposed sensor and previous
sensors for the breast tumor detection is not only the compact
size and the high efficiency, but also the ability to use it without
a need for matching medium, because of the DR characteristics.
Most of the metallic-type sensors are required to be immersed
into a matching medium with permittivity, which is varied
from 3 to 36 for reducing the reflection between free space and
breast [24]. A lot of additional work is required to implement
the matching medium to surround the patient’s breast, and it
RYU AND KISHK: EVALUATION OF DIELECTRIC RESONATOR SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD BREAST TUMOR DETECTION 3739

Fig. 1. Geometry of the DR sensor (a) front view (b) isometric view.

causes inconvenience for the patients. However, the proposed

sensor is made up of the DR with a dielectric constant of 10.2,
which is similar to the permittivity of the fatty tissue. Therefore,
our proposed DR sensor does not need matching medium for
reducing the reflection between free space and breast.
The DRA mounted on a vertical ground plane edge is a very
good candidate for the breast tumor detection, considering its
constant gain, and high antenna (total) efficiency, which are two
of the requirements of the sensor for the breast tumor detection.
To show the suitability of the compact DR sensor for the breast
tumor detection, we provide not only frequency domain analysis
but also time domain analysis.

II. SENSOR CONFIGURATION AND CHARACTERISTICS

As shown in Fig. 1, the antenna is slightly modified compared
with the one in [21] to obtain slightly wider impedance matching
bandwidth and reduce the footprints in contact with the breast
skin. The size of the DRA is 14 mm width, 18.3 mm length, and
5.08 mm thickness with a dielectric constant of 10.2, and it is
supported by 30 25 mm RT6002 substrate with a dielectric
constant of 2.94 and a substrate thickness of 0.762 mm. The
ground plane is partially printed on the substrate under the DRA.
The size of ground plane is 11 30 mm . We use the same
parameters stated in [21] with mm, mm,
mm, and mm.
At first, we consider system transfer function of the breast
tumor detection. The system transfer function is com-
posed of the antenna as transmitter, , the antenna as re-
ceiver, , and the channel,

Fig. 2. Measured and simulated (a) reflection coefficient (b) group delay (c)
(1) gain.

Unfortunately, the transfer function of the channel, , is

in the human breast, which is made up of inhomogeneous ma-
terials. In addition, every woman has different density, electric
property, size, and shape. It implies that we could not obtain
the system transfer function accurately, due to the ambiguity of
channel transfer function in a human breast. Therefore, we only
consider the dispersion/distortion caused by the sensor because
it is the only known factor that can be controlled to improve the
pulse-preserving performance by sensor designer for the breast
tumor detection. Fig. 2 shows the reflection coefficients, the
group delay, and gain characteristics of the DR sensor. It is well
known that the phase variation occurs at the resonant frequen-
cies as the reflection changes the phase from positive to nega-
tive. As it can be seen from the figure, there are a small number
of the resonant frequencies and the variation of the reflection co-
efficient is minimal within the operating frequency band. This
indicates that the amount of the phase variation vs. frequency is
also small and the phase variation is minimized near the reso-
nant frequency. This is one of the reasons for the group delay
variation to be minimized. Minimizing the group delay varia-
tion is extremely important as the dispersion/distortion signif-
icantly affects beamforming, especially delay-and-sum beam-
forming over large portion of the bandwidth [25]. The measure-
3740 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 3. Sensor type I and II dependence on the HPBW.
ments are performed using the HP8510c network analyzer. The
simulated and measured matching frequency bands of the pro-
posed antenna for dB reflection coefficients are from 3.5
GHz to 9.9 GHz with a bandwidth of 96% in simulation and
from 3.8 GHz to 10.8 GHz with a bandwidth of 96% in mea-
surement. The standard deviation of the group delay within the
operating frequency band is only 0.14 ns in simulation and 0.18
ns in measurement.
Fig. 2(c) shows the simulated and measured gain of the DR
sensor. It is generally known that constant gain is also one of
the important factors for the pulse-preserving performance [26].
The standard deviation of the gain within the operating fre-
quency band is only 0.44 dBi in simulation and 0.5 dBi in mea-
surement. Generally, the RF cable from the Vector Network An-
alyzer significantly affects the measurement of small antennas.
Therefore, one would anticipate slight differences between sim-
ulated and measured results. Other parameters such as very con-
sistent radiation patterns and high efficiency characteristics are
very similar to the sensor from [21].
The beamwidth is the one of the parameters to measure
the qualification of the sensor for breast detection [15]. Many
sensor designs for breast tumor detection can be found in the
literature. The position of some sensors require some distance
between sensor and breast skin [10]–[12], [15], while other
sensors can be used both near and in contact with the breast skin
[13], [14]. Previously, the position of the sensor was determined
based on the radiating material. However, as mentioned in [15],
the half power beamwidth (HPBW) is an important parameter.
Fig. 3 shows the expected position of the sensor depending
on the beamwidth. To scan whole of the breast, some sensors
(type I) need some distance from the breast skin due to narrow
HPBW, and other sensors (type II) do not require distance
between sensor and breast skin due to very wide HPBW. The
main advantage of senor type II is low path loss between sensor
and breast. If the position of the sensor having narrow HPBW
is close to the breast skin, then the received signal strength
(RSS) information is varying despite having the same distance
with different angular position of the target. That may cause
error in distinguishing between tumor and glandular tissue and
TABLE I
SENSOR SIZES FOR BREAST TUMOR DETECTION
also in detecting accurate position of the tumor. Therefore, it is
important to get information with same power.
For example, the overall HPBW of the sensor described in
[11] is 32 degrees in the E plane and 60 degrees in the H plane,
and the overall HPBW of the sensor in [15] is 34 degrees in the
E plane and 51 degrees in the H plane. Therefore, the sensor in
[11] requires 131 mm distance from the sensor to the breast skin
for scanning of the whole breast and the sensor in [15] requires
121 mm distance from sensor to the breast skin for scanning
of the whole breast, if the radius of the breast is 50 mm. The
optimum beamwidth of sensor type II is around 180 degrees to
scan whole breast. The overall HPBW of the sensor in [13] is
60 degrees in the E plane and 60 degrees in the H plane. Even
though the radiating material of the sensor in [13] can be in
contact with the breast skin, it requires 50 mm distance from
the sensor to the breast skin to operate effectively. The overall
HPBW of our proposed DRA is 190 degrees in the E plane and
182 degrees in the H degree. Thus, our proposed DRA can be
used near or in contact with the breast skin directly to get tumor
response with same power.
Table I shows the sizes of the sensors. Among them, the sen-
sors in [13] and [14] can contact the breast skin directly because
the materials of their radiating elements are dielectric materials.
The area contacting the breast skin (the footprint) is also impor-
tant. If the contacted area is small, more sensors can be placed
around the breast to obtain more data for breast tumor detection.
The footprint of sensor in [13] is 23.8 mm by 23.8 mm and the
footprint in [14] is 20 mm by 35 mm. The total footprint of the
proposed sensor is only 14 mm by 5.08 mm.
III. ANALYSIS OF TUMOR RESPONSE
In this section, we investigate the tumor response in terms of
both frequency and time-domain analysis. Table II shows the di-
electric properties of the breast model at 6 GHz [5]. Recently,
new electrical constants for UWB microwave dielectric proper-
ties are reported [27]. A Modulated-Gaussian pulse with the fre-
quency range from 3.2 GHz to 9.8 GHz and ns is
used for the signal excitation. Fig. 4 shows the simple numerical
model configuration for the breast tumor detection to figure out
the tumor response with various situations under mono-static
data acquisition. It should be mentioned that the distance of the
sensor and the breast skin is 1 mm due to the difficulty of mod-
eling the contacting skin at the circle shaped realistic model in
Fig. 11. First, to remove the undesired early time content such as
reflections from the breast skin, we use the removal method in
RYU AND KISHK: EVALUATION OF DIELECTRIC RESONATOR SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD BREAST TUMOR DETECTION
Fig. 4. Simple model for the breast tumor detection.
TABLE II
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF THE BREAST MODEL
[7], so that we obtain only the late time ringing signal from the
tumor. This is usually called the calibrated backscattered signal.
Fig. 5 shows the tumor responses of three different tumor
sizes (3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm diameter), when the tumor depth
is at 20 mm and with a 1 mm breast skin thickness. This figure
shows that the tumor response decreases with the tumor size and
the pulse shape is slightly different depending on the size of the
tumor. Fig. 6 shows the tumor responses at three different depths
(20 mm, 30 mm, 40 mm) when the tumor diameter is 3 mm and
with a 1 mm skin thickness. It shows that the tumor response de-
creases with depth and that each tumor response is very similar
for the different depths. We can obtain the point source refer-
ence position using the time of arrival (TOA) technique. From
the results in Figs. 5 and 6, we find that the distortion in the
tumor response pulse is more affected by size or shape of the
tumor than by the depth of the tumor location.
Fig. 7 shows the tumor responses with different breast skin
thicknesses (1 mm and 2 mm) when the tumor diameter is 3
mm and the depth is 30 mm. Even though the breast skin effect
is removed using the early time removal method [5] it is still
slightly affects the late time tumor response, because the tumor
response is from the ringing signal. The difference of the aver-
aged tumor response between the 1 mm and 2 mm breast skin
thickness is around 2 dB.
Fig. 8 compares the tumor response and glandular tissue re-
sponse when the tissue diameter is 5 mm and the depth is 30
mm with a 2 mm skin thickness. The difference between tumor
and glandular tissue response is around 15 dB. This indicates
3741
Fig. 5. Tumor responses of three different size tumors (3 mm, 4 mm, and 5 mm
diameters).
that our sensor can distinguish very clearly the differences be-
tween tumor and glandular tissue. Also we can see the difference
between the tumor itself and the tumor inside glandular tissue,
when the diameter of the tumor is 3 mm and the diameter of the
glandular tissue is 5 mm. This result indicates that the response
of the tumor inside glandular tissue is slightly higher than the
response from the tumor itself.
Fig. 9 shows the tumor responses for the 10 mm off-set cases
when the tumor diameter is 3 mm and the depth is 30 mm as a
reference. Due to the asymmetric structure of the sensor and ra-
diation patterns, the tumor responses for off-set cases are not
exactly the same. However, when we investigate the time of
the peak amplitude of the time domain response, the difference
of the peak time is quite small. That is, even though the point
source position is moved depending on the tumor position, the
variation of the point source position is very small.
It should be mentioned how we calibrate the backscattered
signal numerically. As we can see from the above results, the
tumor response is very small because it is the late time ringing
response. The small numerical error causes unreliable data for
the tumor response. Therefore it is really important to reduce nu-
merical errors as much as possible. One of the biggest numerical
3742
Fig. 6. Tumor responses of three different depths (20 mm, 30 mm, and 40 mm).
errors is from the different mesh structure between the models
with and without the presence of the tumor. In such case, the
response from the numerical error is bigger than the response
from the breast tumor. To avoid this numerical error, we should
use the same mesh structure whether the tumor exists or not. In
addition, the use of a dense mesh structure is also one of the fac-
tors to reduce the numerical error, because a dense mesh usually
provides very good convergence rate.
From the above preliminary results, we have obtained useful
information. First, we obtain received signal strength (RSS). As
the energy of a signal changes with distance, the RSS at a target
conveys information about the distance between that target and
the sensor that has transmitted the signal. Two factors that affect
the signal energy are the path-loss, which refers to the reduction
of signal energy as it propagates through space, and shadowing
effects, which represent signal energy variations due to the ob-
stacles in the environment. Second, we obtain the time of arrival
(TOA) of a signal traveling from sensor to target, and the time
difference of arrival (TDOA) information between the target and
two known reference positions. In our breast tumor detection, a
combination of position parameters can be utilized in order to
obtain more information about the position of the tumor loca-
tion. The above hybrid method using a combination of position
parameters specifies the range between a sensor and a target,
which defines a circle for the possible target positions.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 7. Tumor responses of different skin thickness (1 mm and 2 mm).
Usually, the peak location of the received signal is considered
as the center of the tumor position in the breast tumor detection
and tumor size is quite a small compared with the sensor size.
Therefore, we use geometric techniques for position estimation
to determine the position of the source point from the known
target positions. Therefore, in the presence of simulations (
mm and mm of yz plane and xz plane with 20, 30, and 40
mm depths), the position of the point source variation can be
calculated by the triangulation method, as shown in Fig. 10.
The calculated point source variation on the z axis is only
0.095 mm, on the y axis is 0.53 mm, and on the x axis is 1.94
mm. The biggest point source variation is on the x axis because
the E plane pattern of this sensor is slightly asymmetric and the
geometric radiating element of the x axis is longer than the y
axis.
IV. IMAGE OF BREAST TUMOR
To process the signals coherently, we shift the time by a
number of samples to align the returns from the focal point.
After that, we apply a time-window to the time-shifted signals.
The window is given by
(2)
RYU AND KISHK: EVALUATION OF DIELECTRIC RESONATOR SENSOR FOR NEAR-FIELD BREAST TUMOR DETECTION 3743

Fig. 9. Shift tumor position responses at 010 mm, 0 mm, and 10 mm.
Fig. 8. Comparison of the tumor response, glandular tissue response, and tumor
in glandular tissue response.

The size of time window is one of the parameters that control

the quality of the image. If we choose a wide window, we can ob-
tain robust data to avoid several errors, such as the point source
variation. If we choose a narrow window, we can obtain high
resolution data with the cost of robustness. From the previous
results, we obtain approximately the point source variation of
the DR sensor using the triangulation method via several known
possible tumor location simulations. Therefore, we are able to Fig. 10. Position estimation via triangulation.
choose the time-window appropriately to avoid the error from
the point source variation to get reliable breast tumor detection.
After that, we can apply any kind of the imaging formulations image response. The tumor location is detected at the true loca-
techniques. tion (50 mm, 40 mm), even though tumor location is not cen-
Fig. 11 shows a realistic homogeneous model of the breast. tered in a breast.
We assume that the sensor moves around the breast to form a
synthetic aperture, and obtains data every 45 degrees. Dielec-
V. CONCLUSION
tric properties of the chest wall are chosen as 50 dielectric con-
stant and conductivity 7 S/m, and dielectric properties of the We evaluated a DR sensor mounted on a vertical ground plane
nipple are chosen as 45 dielectric constant and conductivity 5 edge for use in breast tumor detection. Compared with other sen-
S/m [5]. Anatomically, a breast tumor is most commonly inside sors, the proposed DR sensor provides very high total (antenna)
of the ducts (milk passages) and lobules (milk producing glands efficiency, and low distortion/dispersion with compact size. In
at the ends of lobes). In our breast model, we make several lob- addition, DR sensor does not need matching medium to reduce
ules, which are considered as glandular tissues. Fig. 12 shows reflection between free space and breast because of DR char-
the tumor response image. We can observe very compact tumor acteristic. Furthermore, DR sensor provides wide beamwidth
3744 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 10, OCTOBER 2011
Fig. 11. Isometric transparent view of a realistic breast model.
Fig. 12. Tumor response image.
due to the low elevation radiation characteristic. Therefore, it
induces accurate tumor information, such as RSS.
We analyzed the tumor response in both the time and fre-
quency domains to show the performance of our proposed DR
sensor. It may be the good guide for antenna engineer to com-
pare the antenna performance for the breast tumor detection. In
addition, we calculated the point source variation using known
several tumor positions. Due to the very small point source vari-
ation of our proposed sensor, the errors from the point source
can be complemented by a time-windowing technique, which is
a basic technique for the image processing. Therefore, our pro-
posed DR sensor provides very good performance for the loca-
tion problem, which is an important factor for tumor response
localization in practical scenarios when the scan pattern is not
centered on the tumor location.
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Kenny Seungwoo Ryu (S’08–M’11) received the
B.S. degree in radio communications engineering
from Yonsei University, in 1999, the M.S. degree
in electrical engineering from Mississippi State
University, and the Ph.D. degree from the University
of Mississippi in 2010.
From 2005 to 2010, he worked as a Research
Assistant and Teaching Assistant at the Department
of Electrical Engineering, University of Mississippi,
University. Since 2010, he has been a Research En-
gineer at the Mobile Communication R&D Center,
LG Electronics, Korea. His research interest includes the area of design and
analysis of ultrawideband antenna, dielectric resonator antenna, dual-polarized
antenna, computational electromagnetic, artificial magnetic conductors, mi-
crowave passive and active circuit design, sensor design for detection, spectral
estimation, biomedical applications of signal processing and microwave
imaging, and WWAN and LTE antennas for mobile phone applications. He
has also served as a reviewer for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS
AND PROPAGATION, the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, the International
Journal of Numerical Modeling, the Progress In Electromagnetics Research,
and the Journal of EletroMagnetic Waves and Application.
3745
Ahmed A. Kishk (S’84–M’86–SM’90–F’98)
received the B.S. degree in electronic and commu-
nication engineering from Cairo University, Cairo,
Egypt, in 1977 and in applied mathematics from
Ain-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, in 1980, and
the M.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, in 1983 and 1986,
respectively.
Currently he is a Professor at Concordia Univer-
sity, Tier 1 Canada research Chair, Montréal, Québec,
Canada (since 2011). He has published over 220 ref-
ereed journal articles and 380 conference papers. He is a coauthor of four books
and several book chapters and the editor of one book. He offered several short
courses in international conferences. His research interest includes the areas:
millimeter wave antennas, dielectric resonator antennas, microstrip antennas,
EBG surfaces, artificial magnetic conductors, soft and hard surfaces, phased
array antennas, small antennas, and optimization techniques for electromagnetic
applications. He is an Editor of Antennas and Propagation Magazine.
Dr. Kishk is a member of the Antennas and Propagation Society, Microwave
Theory and Techniques Society, Sigma Xi society, U.S. National Committee of
International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Commission B, Phi Kappa Phi
Society, Electromagnetic Compatibility, and Applied Computational Electro-
magnetics Society. He is a Fellow of IEEE since 1998, the Electromagnetic
Academy, and the Applied Computational Electromagnetic Society (ACES).
He and his students are the recipient of many awards. He received 1995 and
2006 Outstanding Paper Awards for papers published in the Applied Compu-
tational Electromagnetic Society Journal. He received the 1997 Outstanding
Engineering Educator Award from the IEEE Memphis section, the Outstanding
Engineering Faculty Member of the Year in 1998 and 2009, and the Faculty Re-
search Award for Outstanding Performance in Research in 2001 and 2005. He
received the 2001 Award of Distinguished Technical Communication for the
entry in the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine. He also received the
Valued Contribution Award for outstanding Invited Presentation, “EM Modeling
of Surfaces with STOP or GO Characteristics - Artificial Magnetic Conductors
and Soft and Hard Surfaces” from the Applied Computational Electromagnetic
Society. He received the 2004 Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Mi-
crowave Prize.