In this letter, we present a dual-feed near-field antenna (NFA) with dierent sensing depths for noninvasive internal body temperature measurements using microwave radiometry. The two feeds correspond to dfferent spatial power densities in the tissues, providing more information for temperature estimation. An on-chip 1.4-GHz Dicke radiometer with a switch and low-noise, high-gain amplifier is designed using enhancement-mode 0.18-um InGaAs technology. The radiometer shows 45 dB of gain and 1.26-dB noise figure (NF) at 1.4 GHz. The Dicke radiometer includes an SP3T switch connected to a noise source and the two feeds of the NFA. Measurements are performed on a skin-muscle phantom to monitor temperature. The temperature information obtained from the two antenna feeds is used to estimate the temperature of both the skin (20 deg C) and muscle (34 deg C) phantoms with average errors around 1:58 deg C and 0:7 deg C, respectively. The results show usefulness of spatial pattern diversity for estimating layered tissue temperatures.
more »
« less
Correlation Radiometry for Subcutaneous Temperature Measurements
This paper addresses microwave radiometry for passive non-invasive subcutaneous temperature measurements at a few centimeter depth in tissues. A correlation radiometer is designed in the quiet 1.4-GHz band and tested on aqueous phantoms. The radiometer is designed from off-the-shelf components and first tested with a matched load, and then with a near-field planar compact probe antenna, both with two temperature-controlled water phantoms of different volumes. The measurement resolution, sensitivity and long-term stability is quantified in terms of integration time for a simple three-point calibration. The lowest measured absolute error compared to a ground-truth thermocouple measurement is 0:25K over one hour of data collection with a single calibration. Measurements show that an integration time of > 1 s results in an absolute error limited by the radiometer gain fluctuations.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10323073
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology
- ISSN:
- 2469-7249
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Sensitive dispersive readouts of single-electron devices (“gate reflectometry”) rely on one-port radio-frequency (RF) reflectometry to read out the state of the sensor. A standard practice in reflectometry measurements is to design an impedance transformer to match the impedance of the load to the characteristic impedance of the transmission line and thus obtain the best sensitivity and signal-to-noise ratio. This is particularly important for measuring large impedances, typical for dispersive readouts of single-electron devices because even a small mismatch will cause a strong signal degradation. When performing RF measurements, a calibration and error correction of the measurement apparatus must be performed in order to remove errors caused by unavoidable non-idealities of the measurement system. Lack of calibration makes optimizing a matching network difficult and ambiguous, and it also prevents a direct quantitative comparison between measurements taken of different devices or on different systems. We propose and demonstrate a simple straightforward method to design and optimize a pi matching network for readouts of devices with large impedance, $$Z \ge 1\hbox {M}\Omega$$ Z ≥ 1 M Ω . It is based on a single low temperature calibrated measurement of an unadjusted network composed of a single L-section followed by a simple calculation to determine a value of the “balancing” capacitor needed to achieve matching conditions for a pi network. We demonstrate that the proposed calibration/error correction technique can be directly applied at low temperature using inexpensive calibration standards. Using proper modeling of the matching networks adjusted for low temperature operation the measurement system can be easily optimized to achieve the best conditions for energy transfer and targeted bandwidth, and can be used for quantitative measurements of the device impedance. In this work we use gate reflectometry to readout the signal generated by arrays of parallel-connected Al-AlOx single-electron boxes. Such arrays can be used as a fast nanoscale voltage sensor for scanning probe applications. We perform measurements of sensitivity and bandwidth for various settings of the matching network connected to arrays and obtain strong agreement with the simulations.more » « less
-
This work presents the transient temperature measurement and modeling of thermochromic variable emitters using a lab-scale cryothermal vacuum test setup. A cryostat is used to provide a space-like environment with a high vacuum and an 80 K heat sink, while a custom-designed sample holder is employed to heat up the sample with transient temperature measurement. Validation with a tungsten mirror is conducted with careful calibration of heat losses as a function of sample temperature. Approaches to reduce the heat losses are discussed as well. A previously fabricated variable emitter made of thermochromic [Formula: see text] thin film in a Fabry–Perot nanophotonic structure, whose infrared emittance increases with temperature upon [Formula: see text] insulator-to-metal phase transition, is experimentally tested at different heating power inputs. A transient heat transfer model is also developed to validate the measurements, and a thermal homeostasis effect with reduced temperature swing from the variable emitter is predicted in comparison to a commonly used static emitter. This novel cryothermal vacuum test platform would facilitate the lab-scale thermal testing of novel variable-emittance coatings for space heat control applications.more » « less
-
Significant knowledge gaps exist in our understanding of urban boundary layer processes, particularly the hygrothermal state. The earth system community has successfully used microwave radiometers for several decades. However, the applicability in complex urban environments has never been adequately tested. Here, observations from a microwave radiometer are compared to radiosonde readings in a densely urbanized site in Houston, Texas. The site was influenced by both an urban heat island and the sea breeze phenomenon. The analysis showed significant disagreement between the virtual potential temperature predicted by the microwave radiometer and the radiosonde for all periods within the boundary layer. However, the values were reasonably comparable above the boundary layer. The microwave radiometer incorrectly predicted an inversion layer instead of a mixed layer during convective periods. The microwave radiometer measurements deviated from the radiosonde measurements throughout the lower troposphere for the relative humidity.more » « less
-
Chen, Xi (Ed.)In patients with dense breasts or at high risk of breast cancer, dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) is a highly sensitive diagnostic tool. However, its specificity is highly variable and sometimes low; quantitative measurements of contrast uptake parameters may improve specificity and mitigate this issue. To improve diagnostic accuracy, data need to be captured at high spatial and temporal resolution. While many methods exist to accelerate MRI temporal resolution, not all are optimized to capture breast DCE-MRI dynamics. We propose a novel, flexible, and powerful framework for the reconstruction of highly-undersampled DCE-MRI data: enhancement-constrained acceleration (ECA). Enhancement-constrained acceleration uses an assumption of smooth enhancement at small time-scale to estimate points of smooth enhancement curves in small time intervals at each voxel. This method is tested in silico with physiologically realistic virtual phantoms, simulating state-of-the-art ultrafast acquisitions at 3.5s temporal resolution reconstructed at 0.25s temporal resolution (demo code available here). Virtual phantoms were developed from real patient data and parametrized in continuous time with arterial input function (AIF) models and lesion enhancement functions. Enhancement-constrained acceleration was compared to standard ultrafast reconstruction in estimating the bolus arrival time and initial slope of enhancement from reconstructed images. We found that the ECA method reconstructed images at 0.25s temporal resolution with no significant loss in image fidelity, a 4x reduction in the error of bolus arrival time estimation in lesions ( p < 0.01) and 11x error reduction in blood vessels ( p < 0.01). Our results suggest that ECA is a powerful and versatile tool for breast DCE-MRI.more » « less
An official website of the United States government

