STTR Phase I: Point-of-Care Skin Cancer Imaging Device

这个小企业技术转让计划（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发一种负担得起的工具，在其深度上对皮肤进行成像，同时提供正常、恶性和良性组织之间的巨大对比。这样的设备将是皮肤科医生和皮肤外科医生的宝贵帮助，并显着提高皮肤癌检测和管理的现状。拟议的系统将被集成在一个单一的框架，从而在一个紧凑的（手持）和实时成像器在低制造成本。这将使所提出的技术在成本上与皮肤镜成像相当，从而促进其广泛使用和应用。该设备还将能够在皮肤病变的毫米波图像中识别肿瘤边缘。这种能力将肿瘤切除手术简化为单层切除手术。皮肤科医生和皮肤外科医生将在活检或肿瘤切除之前使用拟议的成像仪，以促进肿瘤的检测和切除。小企业技术转移计划（STTR）第一阶段项目的重点是首次开发一种完全集成的超宽带毫米波成像系统。这将通过采用合成超宽带成像方法来实现，其中几个脱节的相邻成像子带被集成以共同形成超宽成像带宽。每个子带包含仅在该特定子带内操作的发送和接收元件。在本研究中，子波段相控阵天线的RF前端将被开发并与成像系统的收发器组件集成在单个芯片上。开发的相控阵将被配置为在不同的频率子带上辐射和收集RF频率，同时形成具有单独相移操作的独立波束。因此，电子束转向可以用于扫描目标区域。此外，提出了一种新的方法，在3-D毫米波图像中的肿瘤边缘识别组织的介电特性的统计分布的先验信息。这将导致以低计算成本对介电性质进行更准确的分割。与最先进的毫米波成像技术相比，拟议成像仪的超宽带宽将导致显着更高的图像分辨率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I project is to develop an affordable tool to image the skin over its depth while offering large contrasts between normal, malignant, and benign tissues. Such a device will be an invaluable assistance to dermatologists and dermatologic surgeons and significantly enhance the current state of skin cancer detection and management. The proposed system will be integrated in a single framework, resulting in a compact (handheld) and real-time imager at a low manufacturing cost. This will make the proposed technology comparable in cost to dermoscopic imaging, facilitating its widespread use and application. The proposed device will also be able to identify tumor margins in the millimeter-wave images of skin lesions. This capability will simplify the tumor removal surgery to a single-layer excision procedure. The proposed imager will be used by dermatologists and dermatologic surgeons prior to biopsy or tumor excision, facilitating the detection and removal of tumors. This Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) Phase I project is focused on developing a fully-integrated ultra-wideband millimeter-wave imaging system for the first time. This will be realized by employing the synthetic ultra-wideband imaging approach, where several disjointed, adjacent imaging sub-bands are integrated to collectively form an ultra-wide imaging bandwidth. Each sub-band contains a transmitting and a receiving element that operate only within that specific sub-band. In this research, the RF front-ends of sub-band phased-array antennas will be developed and integrated with the transceiver components of the imaging system on a single chip. The developed phased arrays will be configured to radiate and collect RF frequencies over different frequency sub-bands, while forming independent beams with separate phase-shifting operations. Therefore, electronic beam-steering can be used for scanning the target region. In addition, a novel method for tumor margin identification in 3-D millimeter-wave images is proposed in which a-priori information about the statistical distribution of the dielectric properties of tissues is employed. This will result in a more accurate segmentation of the dielectric properties at a low computational cost. The ultra-wide bandwidth of the proposed imager will result in significantly higher image resolutions compared to the state-of-the-art millimeter-wave imaging technology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.