Recently, several research have been reported to the early detection of breast cancer. But most of the previous detection system like X-ray mammography and ultrasonic screening are mainly used in hospitals. However, for personal cancer detection at home, currently, only unscientific palpation can be used, which is not particularly effective for early detection of tumors.

   Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) is an imaging technique which calculates the electrical con-ductivity distribution within the interior of a body from the impedance measurements on its surface. Since malignant breast tissue has about 3 times higher impedance than normal breast tissue and has different impedance characteristics, EIT has been studied actively as an alternative breast cancer de-tection method.

   For the early breast cancer detection, we proposed a high-resolution EIT IC to enable a compact, convenient, brassiere-shaped system. The integrated system has a small form factor for personal use at home without expertise. The EIT IC employs a low distortion sinusoidal current stimulator and six channels of high sensitivity analog front-end. The EIT IC is integrated on a fabric which has multi-ple soft electrodes, and these electrodes make secure contact on the contoured surface of the breast. Moreover, the breast EIT image can be reconstructed and displayed on a portable smart device so that the user can get images easily at home.

  - JSSC 2015