Mays R Owen, Behdad Nader, Hagness Susan C
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706 USA.
IEEE Antennas Wirel Propag Lett. 2015;14:418-421. doi: 10.1109/LAWP.2014.2365755.
Microwave breast imaging performance is fundamentally dependent on the quality of information contained within the scattering data. We apply a truncated singular-value decomposition (TSVD) method to evaluate the information contained in a simulated scattering scenario wherein a compact, shielded array of miniaturized patch antennas surrounds an anatomically realistic numerical breast phantom. In particular, we investigate the impact of different antenna orientations (and thus polarizations), namely two array configurations with uniform antenna orientations and one mixed-orientation array configuration. The latter case is of interest because it may offer greater flexibility in antenna and array design. The results of this analysis indicate that mixed-polarization configurations do not degrade information quality compared to uniform-polarization configurations and in fact may enhance imaging performance, and thus represent viable design options for microwave breast imaging systems.
微波乳腺成像性能从根本上取决于散射数据中所包含信息的质量。我们应用截断奇异值分解（TSVD）方法来评估模拟散射场景中所包含的信息，在该场景中，一个紧凑、屏蔽的小型贴片天线阵列围绕着一个解剖学上逼真的数字乳腺模型。特别是，我们研究了不同天线方向（以及相应的极化）的影响，即两种具有均匀天线方向的阵列配置和一种混合方向阵列配置。后一种情况值得关注，因为它可能在天线和阵列设计中提供更大的灵活性。该分析结果表明，与均匀极化配置相比，混合极化配置不会降低信息质量，实际上可能会提高成像性能，因此是微波乳腺成像系统可行的设计选项。
