ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Phys.
Sec. Medical Physics and Imaging
A zirconia-based wideband biological tissue identification probe with enhanced penetration depth
Provisionally accepted
Guangmin Wu1,2
Zhongyi Liu3Zitong Yang2Delu Mu1,2Hu Xu2
Jiahong Sun2Zi Ou2Yufeng Tian1,2Xingye Chen3
Yanhua Peng3
WANG JIANDONG2*- 1Inner Mongolia Medical College, Hohhot, China
- 21st Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 3Beihang University School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The development of non-invasive probes with significant penetration depth is crucial for quickly characterizing biological tissues during surgical resection specimens, ensuring the full removal of tumors. This paper presents a novel zirconia probe designed to transmit low-power transcutaneous signals for identifying subcutaneous tumors without damaging biological tissues. The probe features a high dielectric constant and combines zirconia with surface-coated copper layers that have a low dielectric constant. This design achieves ultra-wideband matching from 2.8 GHz to 15.1 GHz for biological tissues. Simulations and experimental measurements on ex vivo porcine skin, fat tissue, and muscle tissue placed above the probe allowed us to differentiate tissues using reflection coefficient analysis. The results showed a penetration depth of 19 mm, with biological safety confirmed through specific absorption rate (SAR) simulations. Tumor phantoms embedded within biological matrices demonstrated the probe's ability to detect lesions larger than 5 mm in diameter. Finally, the potential of the probe for rapid clinical identification was verified through tumor detection and scanning imaging of clinical samples.
Keywords: biological tissue, Penetration depth, Tumor identification, Ultra-wideband matching, Zirconia-based probe
Received: 21 Oct 2025; Accepted: 17 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Liu, Yang, Mu, Xu, Sun, Ou, Tian, Chen, Peng and JIANDONG. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: WANG JIANDONG
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.