Development of Microwave Tomography System Based on Arduino NANO and PocketVNA

In this research study a Microwave-based Tomography (MWT) system is developed as a low cost system which consists of a microcomputer-based data acquisition module that obtains data from a PocketVNA and a mechanical system based on stepper motors which are used to control the angular positions of the Vivaldi antennas along a circular path around the observed object. The stepper motors are driven through motor drivers and an Arduino board. The used Vivaldi antennas can be operated as microwave transceivers from frequency of 1.5 GHz to 9 GHz, while the PocketVNA is used to measure the transmission and reflection coefficients (S11and S12), magnitude and phase of the microwave that have a frequency range of 500 kHz to 4 GHz. Measurements in this study were carried out in the frequency range of 3–3.78 GHz with an increase in frequency of every 0.5 GHz, and measurements were executed 5 times at each angle position, while the antenna position was shifted every a 5°. The test object used was in the form of an octagonal iron metal and cylindrical metal also nylon or polyethylene. The images of the reconstruction process based on Born approximation algorithm significantly illustrates the shape and cross section of the test object.