TY - JOUR
T1 - Ultrawideband, Stable Normal and Cancer Skin Tissue Phantoms for Millimeter-Wave Skin Cancer Imaging
AU - Mirbeik-Sabzevari, Amir
AU - Tavassolian, Negar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 1964-2012 IEEE.
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - This work introduces new, stable, and broadband skin-equivalent semisolid phantoms for mimicking interactions of millimeter waves with the human skin and skin tumors. Realistic skin phantoms serve as an invaluable tool for exploring the feasibility of new technologies and improving design concepts related to millimeter-wave skin cancer detection methods. Normal and malignant skin tissues are separately mimicked by using appropriate mixtures of deionized water, oil, gelatin powder, formaldehyde, TX-150 (a gelling agent, widely referred to as 'super stuff'), and detergent. The dielectric properties of the phantoms are characterized over the frequency band of 0.5-50 GHz using a slim-form open-ended coaxial probe in conjunction with a millimeter-wave vector network analyzer. The measured permittivity results show excellent match with ex vivo, fresh skin (both normal and malignant) permittivities determined in our prior work over the entire frequency range. This work results in the closest match among all phantoms reported in the literature to surrogate human skin tissues. The stability of dielectric properties over time is also investigated. The phantoms demonstrate long-term stability (up to 7 months was investigated). In addition, the penetration depth of millimeter waves into normal and malignant skin phantoms is calculated. It is determined that millimeter waves penetrate the human skin deep enough (0.6 mm on average at 50 GHz) to affect the majority of the epidermis and dermis skin structures.
AB - This work introduces new, stable, and broadband skin-equivalent semisolid phantoms for mimicking interactions of millimeter waves with the human skin and skin tumors. Realistic skin phantoms serve as an invaluable tool for exploring the feasibility of new technologies and improving design concepts related to millimeter-wave skin cancer detection methods. Normal and malignant skin tissues are separately mimicked by using appropriate mixtures of deionized water, oil, gelatin powder, formaldehyde, TX-150 (a gelling agent, widely referred to as 'super stuff'), and detergent. The dielectric properties of the phantoms are characterized over the frequency band of 0.5-50 GHz using a slim-form open-ended coaxial probe in conjunction with a millimeter-wave vector network analyzer. The measured permittivity results show excellent match with ex vivo, fresh skin (both normal and malignant) permittivities determined in our prior work over the entire frequency range. This work results in the closest match among all phantoms reported in the literature to surrogate human skin tissues. The stability of dielectric properties over time is also investigated. The phantoms demonstrate long-term stability (up to 7 months was investigated). In addition, the penetration depth of millimeter waves into normal and malignant skin phantoms is calculated. It is determined that millimeter waves penetrate the human skin deep enough (0.6 mm on average at 50 GHz) to affect the majority of the epidermis and dermis skin structures.
KW - Biomedical imaging
KW - dielectric materials
KW - dielectric measurement
KW - experimental phantoms
KW - millimeter-waves
KW - skin cancer
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U2 - 10.1109/TBME.2018.2828311
DO - 10.1109/TBME.2018.2828311
M3 - Article
C2 - 29993432
AN - SCOPUS:85045736107
SN - 0018-9294
VL - 66
SP - 176
EP - 186
JO - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
JF - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
IS - 1
M1 - 8344452
ER -