Beamforming Algorithms for UWB Radar-based Stroke Detection: Trade-off Performance-Complexity

The use of UWB (Ultra-Wide Band) radar microwave imaging in stroke detection opens the possibility to develop low cost, fast response and transportable diagnostic devices, which could play a key role in emergency scenarios. The feasibility of such a device is strictly related to the trade-off performancecomplexity, which depends from the chosen beamforming algorithm, the number of antennas and the radar mode (monostatic/multistatic). This paper aims to provide a better understanding of this trade-off for several beamforming algorithms and radar configurations (monostatic/multistatic) applied to stroke detection. Comparisons are performed assuming an antenna system with a low number of antennas (namely 8) with respect to more commonly considered settings for this application (from 16 to 48 antennas). The study is based on FDTD simulations and considered beamforming algorithms are: Delay & Sum (considered in most of the works on UWB radar stroke detection); MIST algorithms and adapted versions of the MIST and RAR algorithms originally proposed for breast cancer detection.