Experimental Investigation on Flanged Parallel-Plate Dielectric Waveguide Probe for Detection of Conductive Inclusions in Lossy Dielectric Medium

Abstract

A flanged parallel-plate dielectric waveguide probe (PPDW) for microwave detection and localization of small inclusions in a lossy dielectric medium, based on detecting the contrast in dielectric properties between the inclusion and embedding medium has been proposed. In this paper, experimental evaluation of this probe for the detection and localization of small conductive inclusion is presented. Investigations were performed on solid lossy dielectric phantoms with conductive spherical inclusions representing tumors embedded. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the potential of the PPDW to detect and locate a small inclusion exhibiting significant difference in dielectric properties from the host medium, embedded at reasonable depth.