The latest research status and prospect on microwave technology for monitoring concerned brain activity

Microwave detection technology is one synthesis method involved in physics, electronics and microwave measurement technology. This technique is established on the basis of the electromagnetic characteristics of the media and the physical properties of microwave. A complete microwave detection system for brain activity research consists of a specific antenna array system, data acquisition module, vector network analyzers, as well as computers and other parts. For verifying the reliability of detection systems, sometimes the human phantom is needed. The advantages of this Microwave technology are that the experimental equipment is simple, and that the experimental platform is easy to set up, and that can realize fast automatic, nondestructive, non-invasive detection, beneficial to brain activity study, especially the study of brain diseases such as stroke. This paper mainly discusses the principles of microwave detecting technology in brain activity, detection systems construction, as well as introducing the latest advances in this field. What´s more, the future development tendency of microwave technology for exploring the brain activity is analyzed, especially pointing out the method for rapid diseases diagnosis, researches and development of portable medical devices, as well as trends of combination with brain computer interface. It provides convenience for the beginner who is new to the field to quickly understand the latest developments and find out the interesting aspects to do deeper researches.