Microwave imaging via space-time beamforming for early detection of breast cancer

A method of microwave imaging via space-time (MIST) beamforming is proposed for detecting early-stage breast cancer. An array of antennas is located near the surface of the breast and an ultrawideband (UWB) signal is transmitted sequentially from each antenna. The received backscattered signals are passed through a space-time beamformer that is designed to image backscattered signal energy as a function of location. The beamformer spatially focuses the backscattered signals to discriminate against clutter and noise while compensating for frequency-dependent propagation effects. As a consequence of the significant dielectric-properties contrast between normal and malignant tissue, localized regions of large backscatter energy levels in the image correspond to malignant tumors. A data-adaptive algorithm for removing artifacts in the received signals due to backscatter from the skin-breast interface is also presented. The effectiveness of these algorithms is demonstrated using a variety of numerical breast phantoms based on anatomically realistic MRI-derived FDTD models of the breast. Very small (2 mm) malignant tumors embedded within the complex fibroglandular structure of the breast are easily detected above the background clutter. The MIST approach is shown to offer significant improvement in performance over previous UWB microwave breast cancer detection techniques based on simpler focusing schemes.     

A subspace detection method of analog space-time codes for multiantenna ultra-wideband transmissions

In this letter, we propose a subspace based detection method for space-time block codes (STBC) wedded with ultra-wideband (UWB) transmissions. Without the need of channel information, the proposed algorithm yields the estimation of transmitted symbols by minimizing some quadratic form built on the orthogonality between signal and noise subspaces. Simulations in flat-faded application scenarios show that the subspace method can achieve the same diversity and a loss of about 2 dB at the 10/sup -3/ level with more than four successive space-time codes being decoded jointly, compared to the coherent decoding algorithm.     

超宽带室内定位算法综述

在超宽带定位系统中,多径效应、NLOS 等因素会导致一定程度的测量误差。详细介绍了基于超宽带的各类定位技术及其实现原理,并着重于定位性能较好的TDOA技术,从定位模型建立到定位解算方面系统地介绍了各类基于TDOA的定位算法,详细阐述了各种算法的实现原理及设计流程,并对各种算法在LOS和NLOS下的性能进行了比较分析。     

Analog space-time coding for multiantenna ultra-wideband transmissions

Ultra-wideband (UWB) transmissions have well-documented advantages for low-power, peer-to-peer, and multiple-access communications. Space-time coding (STC), on the other hand, has gained popularity as an effective means of boosting rates and performance. Existing UWB transmitters rely on a single antenna, while ST coders have mostly focused on digital linearly modulated transmissions. In this paper, we develop ST codes for analog (and possibly nonlinearly) modulated multiantenna UWB systems. We show that the resulting analog system is able to collect not only the spatial diversity, but also the multipath diversity inherited by the dense multipath channel, with either coherent or noncoherent reception. Simulations confirm a considerable increase in both bit-error rate performance and immunity against timing jitter, when wedding STC with UWB transmissions.     

An ultra-wideband antenna for the reinforced concrete detection

In this paper, an Ultra-Wideband （UWB） planar antenna is proposed for the reinforced concrete detection, which consists of a pair of planar waterdrop arms, a microstrip to coplanar par- allel-strips transition and a shallow rectangular cavity. In order to overcome the disadvantages of the shallow cavity, some absorbing material is loaded to weaken the narrow-band effect of the cavity and the crosstalk interference. The simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna has a large bandwidth from 0.48 GHz to 3.6 GHz with Voltage Standing Wave Ratio （VSWR） below 2 and a fractional bandwidth about 200% under the center frequency of 1.6 GHz, directional radiation char- acteristics and small late-time ringing in the time domain, which can be suitable for nondestructive detection of the reinforced concrete.     

Effect of lesion morphology on microwave signature in 2-D ultra-wideband breast imaging

This paper studies the possibility of distinguishing between benign and malignant masses by exploiting the morphology-dependent temporal and spectral characteristics of their microwave backscatter response in ultra-wideband breast cancer detection. The spiculated border profiles of 2-D breast masses are generated by modifying the baseline elliptical rings based upon the irregularity of their peripheries. Furthermore, the single- and multilayer lesion models are used to characterize a distinct mass region followed by a sharp transition to background, and a blurred mass border exhibiting a gradual transition to background, respectively. Subsequently, the complex natural resonances (CNRs) of the backscatter microwave signature can be derived from the late-time target response and reveal diagnostically useful information. The fractional sequence CLEAN algorithm is proposed to estimate the lesions' delay intervals and identify the late-time responses. Finally, it is shown through numerical examples that the locations of dominant CNRs are dependent on the lesion morphologies, where 2-D computational breast phantoms with single and multiple lesions are investigated. The analysis is of potential use for discrimination between benign and malignant lesions, where the former usually possesses a better-defined, more compact shape as opposed to the latter.     

超宽带微波滤波器研究现状

超宽带技术具有低功耗、高速率、保密性强等优势,在空间导航、空间通信、雷达等领域有广泛的应用与良好的发展前景。综合了国内外超宽带技术的最新进展,介绍了超宽带微波滤波器的作用、特点及关键问题。从z变换法、多模谐振器法、滤波器级联法等设计方法和微带结构、多层电路结构、腔体结构及新材料等实现结构对近期超宽带微波滤波器的设计进行归纳总结并举例说明。最后展望了超宽带滤波器小型化、高集成、高性能的发展趋势。     

Time-multiplexed beamforming for noninvasive microwave hyperthermia treatment

A noninvasive microwave beamforming strategy is proposed for selective localized heating of biological tissue. The proposed technique is based on time multiplexing of multiple beamformers. We investigate the effectiveness of the time-multiplexed beamforming in the context of brain hyperthermia treatment by using a high-fidelity numerical head phantom of an adult female from the Virtual Family (IT'IS Foundation) as our testbed. An operating frequency of 1 GHz is considered to balance the improved treatment resolution afforded by higher frequencies against the increased penetration through the brain afforded by lower frequencies. The exact head geometry and dielectric properties of biological tissues in the head are assumed to be available for the creation of patient-specific propagation models used in beamformer design. Electromagnetic and thermal simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain method are used to evaluate the hyperthermia performance of time-multiplexed beamforming and conventional beamforming strategies. The proposed time-multiplexing technique is shown to reduce the unintended heating of healthy tissue without affecting the treatment temperature or volume. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated for target locations in three different regions of the brain. This approach has the potential to improve microwave-induced localized heating for cancer treatment via hyperthermia or heat-activated chemotherapeutic drug release.     

Application of quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes in beamforming

It is well known that when channel information is available at the transmitter, transmit beamforming scheme can be employed to enhance the performance of a multiple-antenna system. Recently, Jongren et al. and Zhou-Giannakis proposed a new performance criterion based on partial channel side information at the transmitter. With this criterion, an optimal beamforming matrix was constructed for the orthogonal space-time block codes. However, the same method has not been applied to the recently proposed quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes (QSTBCs) due to the nonorthogonal nature of the quasi-orthogonal designs. In this paper, the issue of combining beamforming with QSTBCs is addressed. Based on our asymptotic analysis, we extend the beamforming scheme from Jongren et al. and construct the beamforming matrices for the quasi-orthogonal designs. The proposed beamforming scheme accomplishes high transmission rate as well as high-order spatial diversity. The new QSTBC beamformer can be presented as a novel four-directional or eight-directional eigen-beamformer that works for systems with four or more transmit antennas. Simulations for systems with multiple transmit antennas demonstrate significant performance improvement over several other widely used beamforming methods at various SNRs and for channels with different quality of feedback.     

Multistatic adaptive microwave imaging for early breast cancer detection

We propose a new multistatic adaptive microwave imaging (MAMI) method for early breast cancer detection. MAMI is a two-stage robust Capon beamforming (RCB) based image formation algorithm. MAMI exhibits higher resolution, lower sidelobes, and better noise and interference rejection capabilities than the existing approaches. The effectiveness of using MAMI for breast cancer detection is demonstrated via a simulated 3-D breast model and several numerical examples.     

A confocal microwave imaging algorithm for breast cancer detection

We present a computationally efficient and robust image reconstruction algorithm for breast cancer detection using an ultrawideband confocal microwave imaging system. To test the efficacy of this approach, we have developed a two-dimensional (2-D) anatomically realistic MRI-derived FDTD model of the cancerous breast. The image reconstruction algorithm is applied to FDTD-computed backscatter signals, resulting in a microwave image that clearly identifies the presence and location of the malignant lesion. These simulations demonstrate the feasibility of detecting and imaging small breast tumors using this novel approach     

一种改进的分层空时码检测算法

基于最小均方误差原则,本文给出一种改进的分层空时码权向量计算方法,该算法均衡考虑了信道特性矩阵和接收信号中的噪声对系统的影响,在一定程度上改进了系统性能。仿真结果显示,与ZF算法相比,若采用本文给出的MMSE算法,基于Turbo编码,采用两发两收的LST码系统可获得9~12dB的增益。     

A novel amplitude-phase weighting for analog microwave beamforming

A simple receiver and transmitter structure for smart antennas and phased array antennas is proposed. A new technique for amplitude and phase weighting in microwave domain is presented. Signals of different antenna elements are sampled using pulses with adjusted time delay and duty cycles. The first replica of the sampled signal is reconstructed to provide the proper phase shift and amplitude weighting. A new switch circuit is designed to improve the power efficiency of the proposed structure and to lower the effects of switching on the impedance matching. The effect of nonideal switching on the performance of the system is analyzed. Procedures are proposed to integrate the proposed structure with adaptive signal processing tasks. Signal to noise ratio of the structure is studied under different scenarios.     

Multi-aspect detection of surface and shallow-buried unexplodedordnance via ultra-wideband synthetic aperture radar

An ultra-wideband (UWB) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is investigated for the detection of former bombing ranges, littered by unexploded ordnance (UXO). The objective is detection of a high enough percentage of surface and shallow-buried UXO, with a low enough false-alarm rate, such that a former range can be detected. The physics of UWB SAR scattering is exploited in the context of a hidden Markov model (HMM), which explicitly accounts for the multiple aspects at which a SAR system views a given target. The HMM is trained on computed data, using SAR imagery synthesized via a validated physical-optics solution. The performance of the HMM is demonstrated by performing testing on measured UWB SAR data for many surface and shallow UXO buried in soil in the vicinity of naturally occurring clutter     

MIMO系统中一种改进的盲MMSE空时多用户检测算法

针对MIMO系统,提出了一种改进的基于子空间的盲MMSE空时多用户检测算法。该算法结合MIMO系统的空间分集技术与Alamouti空时分组码方案,预估计MIMO信道信息并对信号子空间进行预处理,使用正交性能和稳态性能较好的NOOja算法跟踪信号子空间,在自适应过程中对特征值矩阵进行优化,去除迭代带来的噪声,解决了跟踪过程中信号特征值矩阵的近似估计会带来检测器性能恶化的问题。仿真结果表明这种算法,能有效地抑制多址干扰,抗远近效应能力强,尤其在低信噪比、远近效应明显的恶劣环境下,有稳定良好的性能表现。      

Fast 3-d tomographic microwave imaging for breast cancer detection

Microwave breast imaging (using electromagnetic waves of frequencies around 1 GHz) has mostly remained at the research level for the past decade, gaining little clinical acceptance. The major hurdles limiting patient use are both at the hardware level (challenges in collecting accurate and noncorrupted data) and software level (often plagued by unrealistic reconstruction times in the tens of hours). In this paper we report improvements that address both issues. First, the hardware is able to measure signals down to levels compatible with sub-centimeter image resolution while keeping an exam time under 2 min. Second, the software overcomes the enormous time burden and produces similarly accurate images in less than 20 min. The combination of the new hardware and software allows us to produce and report here the first clinical 3-D microwave tomographic images of the breast. Two clinical examples are selected out of 400+ exams conducted at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, NH). The first example demonstrates the potential usefulness of our system for breast cancer screening while the second example focuses on therapy monitoring.     

计算光学成像:何来，何处，何去，何从？

计算光学成像是一种通过联合优化光学系统和信号处理以实现特定成像功能与特性的新兴研究领域。它并不是光学成像和数字图像处理的简单补充,而是前端（物理域）的光学调控与后端（数字域）信息处理的有机结合,通过对照明、成像系统进行光学编码与数学建模,以计算重构的方式获取图像与信息。这种新型的成像方式将有望突破传统光学成像技术对光学系统以及探测器制造工艺、工作条件、功耗成本等因素的限制,使其在功能（相位、光谱、偏振、光场、相干度、折射率、三维形貌、景深延拓,模糊复原,数字重聚焦,改变观测视角）、性能（空间分辨、时间分辨、光谱分辨、信息维度与探测灵敏度）、可靠性、可维护性等方面获得显著提高。现阶段,计算光学成像已发展为一门集几何光学、信息光学、计算光学、现代信号处理等理论于一体的新兴交叉技术研究领域,成为光学成像领域的国际研究重点和热点,代表了先进光学成像技术的未来发展方向。国内外众多高校与科研院所投身其中,使该领域全面进入了“百花齐放,百家争鸣”的繁荣发展局面。作为本期《红外与激光工程》——南京理工大学专刊“计算光学成像技术”专栏的首篇论文,本文概括性地综述了计算光学成像领域的历史沿革、发展现状、并展望其未来发展方向与所依赖的核心赋能技术,以求抛砖引玉。     

基于空时聚焦传输的多源单中继超宽带网络传输性能分析

超宽带空时聚焦传输降低了多用户传输时的互相干扰,可以让多个源节点和多个目的节点通过一个中继节点进行通信。研究了基于空时聚焦传输的多源单中继超宽带网络的传输性能,分别推导了多址阶段和广播阶段的中断概率,得到了网络吞吐量与用户数目、节点距离、超宽带脉冲宽度、信号帧周期、接收信干噪比等参数之间的解析关系,并通过最大化网络吞吐量以及优化结果分析得到了传输方案的设计准则。最后,仿真结果验证了不同路径损耗因子下2个阶段的中断概率。     

Wideband synthetic aperture beamforming for through-the-wall imaging

Through-the-wall radar imaging (TWRI) and sensing is emerging as an important area of research and development. A TWRI system provides enhanced situational awareness in operational environments for a variety of civilian and military applications. In particular, a TWRI system facilitates realtime information gathering and intelligent decision-making about the contents of the indoor scene. Compared to other radar applications, TWRI faces unique challenges due to signal propagation through walls. The composition and thickness of the wall, its dielectric constant, and the angle of incidence affect the strength and characteristics of the propagating signal. The change in propagation speed and wave refraction must be taken into account for effective and accurate imaging. In this article, we present a synthetic aperture beamforming approach that uses ray perturbation theory to account for the effects of transmission through a single uniform wall.     

A broadband MVDR beamforming core for ultrasound imaging

The Minimum Variance Distortion less Response (MVDR) beamformer is an attractive alternative to conventional delay and sum (DAS) beamformers in medical ultrasound imaging. However, it is not widely employed in medical ultrasound imaging due to its computational complexity. In this paper, we intend to present a novel broadband MVDR beamformer architecture and its implementation for up to 32 channel ultrasound imaging system. The proposed architecture is based on the subarray MVDR and Dichotomous Coordinate Descent (DCD) iteration based adaptive weight computation. A Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based ultrasound system prototype set up is designed, and the proposed MVDR beamforming Core is emulated on the FPGA. The proposed beamforming core could achieve up to 65.5 fps for a 640 x 480 ultrasound frame. The ultrasound system prototype operates at 20 MHz sampling frequency, and the FPGA implementation resulted in approximately 35% of FPGA resources (Xilinx Kintex-7 410T). Image quality comparisons in terms of Contrast Ration (CR) and Contrast to Noise Ratio (CNR) were performed with MATLAB™ MVDR model ported on the Verasonics™ Vantage-64 ultrasound research platform.