A wearable textile brace is introduced as an electromagnetic imaging system that breaks hospital boundaries to real-time onsite scanning for knee injuries. The proposed brace consists of a 12-element textile slot loop antenna array, which is designed to match the human knee for enhanced electromagnetic wave penetration. Wool felt and conductive fabric are used to fabricate the antenna array thanks to their flexibility and proper dielectric properties. Each antenna element has a compact footprint of 42×24×3.22 mm342 \times 24 \times 3.22{\rm{\ m}}{{\rm{m}}^3} and achieves unidirectional radiation, high front-to-back ratio of 14 dB, wide bandwidth of 81% at 0.7–1.7 GHz, and safe SAR levels. A modified double-stage delay, multiply, and sum (DS-DMAS) algorithm is used to process the collected signals from the antenna array based on differential left/right knee imaging. The reconstructed images numerically and experimentally on realistic phantoms demonstrate the potential of the brace system for onsite detection of different types of ligaments/tendon tears.

中文翻译：

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用于膝盖成像的纺织电磁支架


引入了一种可穿戴纺织支架作为电磁成像系统，打破了医院的界限，实时现场扫描膝盖受伤情况。所提出的支架由 12 元件的织物缝隙环形天线阵列组成，其设计与人体膝盖相匹配，以增强电磁波穿透力。由于羊毛毡和导电织物具有灵活性和适当的介电性能，因此可用于制造天线阵列。每个天线单元的占地面积为 42×24×3.22 mm342 \times 24 \times 3.22{\rm{\ m}}{{\rm{m}}^3}，并实现单向辐射、高从前到后14 dB 的比率、0.7–1.7 GHz 下 81% 的宽带宽以及安全的 SAR 水平。使用改进的双级延迟、乘法和求和 (DS-DMAS) 算法来处理基于差分左/右拐点成像的天线阵列收集的信号。真实模型上的数字和实验重建图像证明了支架系统在现场检测不同类型韧带/肌腱撕裂方面的潜力。