Design and Interdisciplinary Simulations of a Hand-Held Device for Internal-Body Temperature Sensing Using Microwave Radiometry

The development of contemporary complex technological systems prerequisites interdisciplinary design and simulation methodologies. Such an approach is demonstrated in the present work. Toward manufacturing a hand-held device aiming at internal body temperature measurements using passive microwave radiometer technology, five design and simulation perspectives are elaborated. The proposed system consists of an ultra-wide-band microwave compact antenna, a multi-frequency microwave radiometer, and a digital processing unit, all enclosed in a portable arrangement. A modeling and visualization software, processes acquired measurements according to a predefined model of human breast. The system’s concept of operation is based on the fact that a malignant tumor turns out to local temperature increase inside the tissue. By measuring this temperature in successive depths, using different frequency bands in the region of 1–4 GHz, as well as in nearby spatially arranged spots on the human tissue surface, 2-D and 3-D imaging of the temperature distribution are realized. This paper focuses on design and simulation approaches of all system’s aspects.