Photonic crystal based hour glass patch antenna for the detection of breast cancer

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer in females in a large number of countries around the world. One in every twenty females gets confirmed to have breast cancer during their lifetime, though the number varies significantly by country. There are various conventional methods to spot the breast cancer cells, such as magnetic resonance imaging, X-ray mammography, biopsies, and ultrasound. The early identification of cancer cells helps to save many human lives. This paper investigates tumor detection in a breast phantom using a Photonic crystal (PhC) based hourglass terahertz patch antenna. This paper designed four different antenna structures: conventional hourglass patch antenna (with and without breast phantom) and PhC-based hourglass patch antenna (with and without breast phantom). The proposed PhC antenna models and the breast phantom are designed using the CST studio suite and analyzed the various antenna parameters. The observed S11 parameter for the proposed structures is − 21.50, − 25.34, − 33.78 and − 50.32 dB. The proposed antenna resonated in THz frequency, which does not affect human health and is safer due to non-ionizing characteristics. The suggested PhC structure is tiny, less expensive, lightweight, environmentally benign, and can be utilized as a primary screening technique for people with breast cancer, especially in resource-limited areas.