Surface-Wave Skin Characterization with a Flexible Vivaldi Antenna

This paper presents a study on characterizing skin lesions using surface waves generated by a pair of flexible Vivaldi antennas. Aimed at improving early-stage skin cancer diagnosis, the antennas operate in the 3–6 G Hz range, creating surface waves that propagate along the tissue-air interface, making them sensitive to changes in the skin's dielectric properties. By analyzing the phase difference in scattering parameters (<tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$S$</tex><inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">21</inf>), variations in permittivity due to lesions are detected. Full-wave simulations were performed using ANSYS Electronics on a simplified skin model, demonstrating that both tumor size and dielectric contrast affect the measured phase difference, enabling the characterization of skin lesions. This method offers a promising, non-invasive, low-cost tool for skin cancer screening. It could enable portable diagnostics and easily integrate into clinical settings, with potential to improve patient treatment and survival rates through earlier detection.