Sub-THz Contactless Continuous-Wave System for Skin Cancer Detection

Sub-THz waves are attracting increasing interest for skin cancer detection due to their sensitivity to water content, which is typically higher in ma- lignant tissues than in surrounding healthy skin, thus providing a natural contrast mechanism. In addition, they offer a non-invasive sensing modality with greater penetration capability than conventional optical techniques. In this study, a compact contactless continuous-wave system operating in the 500 − 750 GHz band is presented and assessed using dedicated silicone-based phantoms designed to reproduce the dielectric contrast reported in the litera- ture between basal cell carcinoma and healthy skin. B-scan reconstructions obtained from the measured reflection coefficients suggest that the system can identify and localize the embedded target under the investigated condi- tions, including both smooth and rough surface configurations. These results highlight the potential of the proposed approach for sub-THz dermatological sensing applications.