On the Contrast between Healthy and Cancer Tissues at Millimeter-Wave Regime for Skin Cancer Detection Using Reflectometry

This paper evaluates the contrast between healthy and cancer tissues at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) regime using open-ended waveguide antennas (OEWAs) for skin cancer detection based on reflectometry. Two double-ridge OEWAs with 15–40-GHz and 40–110-GHz bandwidths are designed and fabricated. Each antenna demonstrates |S
11
| <–10 dB and stable and symmetric radiation patterns a cross 15–40 GHz and 40–110 GHz with aperture sizes of 9.47×5.79 mm
²
and 3.78×2.27 mm
²
, respectively. The minimum and maximum contrasts were obtained as 1.1% and 21.55% at 15.9 GHz and 109 GHz, respectively. The study provides valuable insight into the design of open-ended waveguide antennas for highly sensitive skin cancer detection systems at the mm-wave regime.