| Περίληψη: | A pneumothorax is an abnormal collection of air in the pleural cavity. This condition causes the pleural space to expand, putting pressure on the underlying lung, which may lead to collapse.
Pneumothorax is diagnosed using chest X-ray, CT scan, ultrasound imaging, and physical examination that requires a high level of operator competency. Even if the mortality rates are not extremely high, pneumothorax may cause serious health problems if medical and surgical treatment is delayed. Microwave technology has shown to be promising for detecting various types of traumatic injuries, and some previous research have been made specifically addressed how a microwave antenna could be used to detect pneumothorax, with most of them using abstract structures simulating the human body. The aim and motivation of this thesis was to investigate whether it is possible to detect pneumothorax by using now more accurate and detailed models than in all previous studies.
The first important step in this thesis was the design of the antenna. A rectangular microstrip patch antenna was designed using the software HFSS. Size reduction techniques was applied to make the antenna as small as possible. The next step was to create a matching layer where the antenna will be positioned in order to minimize the reflections between the antenna and the body. The last and crucial step was the simulation of the antenna with the anatomical body. The software used for this purpose was Sim4Life, a simulation platform that combines computable human phantoms with physical solvers.
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