Abstract
A compact ultra-wideband(UWB) antenna and an antenna array based Microwave Imaging system are presented in this paper. The presented antenna is consist of a rectangular slotted patch, tapered slot ground with 1.6 mm height which has a compact size of 21.44 x 23.53 mm(2). Numerous parameters are considered and optimized for using the proposed antenna in breast imaging system over ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency (3.1-10.6 GHz). The antenna offers an operating bandwidth of about 8.51 GHz (3.49-12 GHz) for reflection co-efficient -10dB with good impedance matching, 5.76 dBi of highest gain and about 92% of average radiation efficiency with stable radiation pattern. The fidelity factor is 82% for face to face direction and for side by side is 90%, that indicates the directionality and lower alteration of the received signal. The antenna is fabricated and the properties are measured to observe the antenna performance. The array setup of 7 antennas is used to measure the backscattering signal of the breast phantom and observe the significant change of signal with and without tumor cell inside the phantom. The images generated form the analysis of backscattering signal is presented.