Wideband-Narrowband Switchable Tapered Slot Antenna for Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

In this paper, a wideband-narrowband switchable tapered slot antenna (TSA) with a compact meander line resonator for an integrated microwave imaging and hyperthermia system was proposed. A compact meander line resonator, which exhibited band-pass characteristics and provided narrowband characteristics by using one PIN diode, was fabricated beneath the tapered slot of the wideband TSA to minimize the degradation of the wideband characteristics. Moreover, the electromagnetic energy was transferred to the meander line resonator with a coupling effect to ensure effective frequency switching. By adapting a PIN diode on the meander line resonator, frequency switching could be achieved. In this way, the proposed antenna could operate in a real-time frequency switching mode between the ultra-wideband (UWB; 3.1~10 GHz), which is used for microwave imaging, and the 2.45 GHz band (industrial, scientific, and medical, ISM band), which is used for microwave hyperthermia. Frequency and time-domain results proved the applicability of the proposed antenna to an integrated breast cancer detection and treatment system.