A Low-Frequency Breast Cancer Detection Setup: An Experimental Study

This paper presents a novel low-frequency electromagnetic system for enhanced breast tumor detection. The proposed setup utilizes a loop array integrated with spiral resonators as a magnetic field-driven transmitter, and a metasurface antenna as the receiver. Operating at 200 MHz, this system achieves deeper tissue penetration due to its low frequency and enhances sensitivity to anomalies because of the conductivity contrast between tumor and healthy tissues under magnetic fields. The uniform illumination of the entire breast volume eliminates the need for mechanical scanning. Furthermore, integrating the loop array with the spiral resonators enhances the magnetic field strength, while the single-feed-point design simplifies the system. Numerical simulations were conducted using a realistic dense breast model, demonstrating that the proposed setup can detect tumors of various locations, sizes, and depths within the dense breast tissue. The complete system was fabricated, implemented, and validated through experimental measurements.