Terahertz Imaging Camera for Breast Cancer Detection

Student: Katie Welch

Degree: MS, May 2023

Major Professor: Dr. Hugh Churchill​

Research Area(s):

Energy Materials & Devices​​

View Research Quadslide

Background/Relevance

  • Terahertz radiation has proven to be effective in measuring breast cancer due to high contrast between breast tissue and cancer cells. There is a need for faster completion of margin analysis. Techniques involving terahertz radiation for breast cancer analysis is pioneered by Magda El-Shenawee’s research group at UARK.

Innovation

  • Detection of margins will implement a terahertz laser in an encoding mask for single pixel detection using digital light processing (DLP) technology. The final camera is intended to analyze breast cancer samples in a timely and reliable fashion.

Approach

  • Starting with the design in Figure 3, the camera will be simplified by removing the laser diode and spatial encoding mask; this will be replaced with the digital micro-mirror device to directly control the terahertz beam.
  • A terahertz TDS system using a previous configuration will be altered to include the digital micromirror chip. The modified experimental setup will be incorporated into real-time terahertz imaging with a single-pixel detector.​
Figure 3: Experimental illustration of real-time terahertz imaging with a single-pixel detector

Key Results

  • A DLP projector from Texas Instrument, shown in Figure 1, will be manipulated using software design to allow a single pixel scan of a desired area.
  • In order to individually control each mirror on the digital micromirror device inside the DLP, a HDMI shield, shown in Figure 2, using an Arduino and Raspberry PI will convert serial commands to HDMI output.​
Image of LightCrafter 4500 from Texas Instruments

Conclusions

  • Testing and optimization will be conducted to determine the final scanning speed and efficiency of analysis.

  • The camera will help decrease the risk associated with complications or death that can occur to a breast cancer patient

Future Work

  • Future work includes optimizing analysis using terahertz radiation for breast cancer detection, and further development of the terahertz camera to one day be used in operating rooms.