Simulation Environment for an Open-Ended Coaxial Probe and Visualisation of Permittivity Measurements

Abstract

This thesis work focuses on the development of reference data and visualization software to implement a user friendly probe to image the electrical parameters (i.e., permittivity) of biological materials, such as the skin. The reference data is used for the creation of a lookup table that can be used to quickly derive the relative permittivity of a material from the probe measurements. It was found that the reference data provided for the lookup table resulted in reliable derivation of relative permittivity. A second task described in this report is the design and implementation of a graphical user interface which displays measured relative permittivity values. This user interface should be capable of interacting with the measuring equipment and positioning system to acquire data and corresponding positions. The user interface is capable of presenting these in a visual format by showing 2D and 3D plots of the values and the locations at which they were measured. The underlying design pattern is explained. The user interface, written in MATLAB, is fully Object Oriented and uses the Model-View-Controller paradigm. The permittivity values can be viewed at different frequencies and a choice to view the magnitude, the real part or the imaginary part of the permittivity can be made. A modular approach has made the user interface well extendible."