Quasi- Open-Ended Coaxial Dielectric Probe Array for Skin Burn Characterization

摘要

We have developed a planar probe for measuring dielectric properties. It exploits modern circuit board fabrication technologies that effectively construct a quasi-coaxial structure running perpendicular to the board. The feed line is a printed coplanar waveguide which comes in from the side on the top plane. The opening to the bottom behaves exactly like an open-ended coaxial probe. The initial results are comparable to the existing coaxial probes. The geometry of these probes allows them to be fabricated in an array utilizing standard, multi-layer circuit fabrication technology. These probe arrays may prove extremely useful in applications such as tumor margin detection for resected tissue, skin cancer screening and characterizing burns.