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

这个小型企业技术转移计划(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来对皮肤深度进行成像，同时在正常、恶性和良性组织之间提供较大的对比。这种设备将为皮肤科医生和皮肤科外科医生提供无价的帮助，并显著提高皮肤癌检测和治疗的现状。拟议的系统将集成在单一框架中，从而以较低的制造成本实现紧凑型(手持)和实时成像器。这将使拟议的技术在成本上与皮肤镜成像相当，有利于其广泛使用和应用。拟议的设备还将能够识别皮肤损伤的毫米波图像中的肿瘤边缘。这一能力将把肿瘤切除手术简化为单层切除程序。皮肤科医生和皮肤科外科医生将在活检或肿瘤切除之前使用拟议的成像仪，以便于检测和切除肿瘤。这个小型企业技术转移计划(STTR)第一阶段项目首次专注于开发全集成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，其中几个不连续的、相邻的成像子带被集成在一起以共同形成超宽带成像带宽。每个子带包含仅在该特定子带内操作的发送和接收元件。在这项研究中，子带相控阵天线的射频前端将被开发出来并与成像系统的收发组件集成在一块芯片上。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，同时通过单独的相移操作形成独立的波束。因此，可以使用电子波束控制来扫描目标区域。此外，提出了一种利用组织介电特性统计分布的先验信息来识别三维毫米波图像中肿瘤边缘的新方法。这将导致以较低的计算成本更准确地分割介电特性。与最先进的毫米波成像技术相比，建议中的成像器的超宽带宽将带来显著更高的图像分辨率。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优势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.