Integrated ultra-wideband microwave system to measure composition ratio between fat and muscle in multi-species tissue types

Abstract

Accurate and non-invasive assessment of fat and muscle composition is crucial for biomedical monitoring to track health conditions in humans and pets, as well as for classifying meats in the meat industry. This study introduces a cost-effective, multifunctional ultra-wideband microwave system operating from 2.4 to 4.4 GHz, designed for rapid and non-destructive quantification of fat thickness, muscle thickness, and fat-to-muscle ratio in diverse ex-vivo samples, including pork, beef, and oil–water mixtures. The compact handheld device integrates essential RF components such as a frequency synthesizer, directional coupler, logarithmic power detector, and a dual-polarized Vivaldi antenna. Bluetooth telemetry enables seamless real-time data transmission to mobile or PC-based platforms, with each measurement completed in a few seconds. To enhance signal quality, a two-stage denoising pipeline combining low-pass filtering and Savitzky–Golay smooth-23 ing was applied, effectively suppressing noise while preserving key spectral features. Using a random forest regression model trained on resonance frequency and signal-loss features, the system demonstrates high predictive performance even under limited sample conditions. Correlation coefficients for fat thickness, muscle thickness, and fat-to-muscle ratio consistently exceeded 0.90 across all sample types, while mean absolute errors remained below 3.5 mm. The highest prediction accuracy was achieved in homogeneous oil–water samples, whereas biologically complex tissues like pork and beef introduced greater variability, particularly in muscle-related measurements. The proposed microwave system is highlighted as a highly portable and time-efficient solution, with measurements completed within seconds. Its low cost, ability to analyze multiple tissue types using a single device, and non-invasive nature without the need for sample pre-treatment or anesthesia make it well suited for applications in agri-food quality control, point-of-care diagnostics, and broader biomedical fields.