Performance Evaluation of a Time Domain Microwave System for Medical Diagnostics

Journal article, 2019

A time-domain microwave system for medical diagnostics was developed using off-the-shelf components. The system's performance was evaluated for realistic measurement scenarios when two different measurement strategies: with and without variable gain controls (VGCs) were employed. The results showed that without the employment of the VGC strategy, the system was able to measure loss up to 80 dB in the frequency range of 500 MHz-3 GHz. A 20 dB higher dynamic range was obtained when the VGC strategy was used. This measurement accuracy was obtained with settings which results in the measurement speed of 20 μs per trace.