Millimeter Wave Reflectometry and Imaging for Noninvasive Diagnosis of Skin Burn Injuries

Accurate assessment of the degree of burn in human skin is critically important for burn technicians and physicians when making treatment decisions. Millimeter wave reflectometry and imaging are potential diagnostic tools capable of distinguishing between healthy and burned skin, as the dielectric properties of the latter are significantly different from that of the former. In this paper, the commonly used layered model of human skin is used to simulate the reflection properties of skin with varying degrees of burn, at Ka-band (26.5-40 GHz), to demonstrate the potential for such diagnosis. Measurements of complex reflection coefficient are also conducted on a pigskin with and without medical dressing, which is a close mimic to human skin. Good agreement is obtained, in amplitude and variation trends in the reflection coefficient results, between simulation and measurement results, indicating the potential effectiveness and feasibility of burn degree diagnosis by localized millimeter wave reflectometry and complex reflection coefficient L^2 -Norm analysis. Finally, synthetic aperture radar imaging technique is used to examine the efficacy of imaging for burn wound at V-band (50-75 GHz). In addition, the effectiveness of localized and imaging methods for evaluating burns covered by medical dressings is also demonstrated.