Three-Dimensional Human Head Phantom With Realistic Electrical Properties and Anatomy

An anatomically realistic human head phantom as a potential mean of experimentally validating microwave-based head imaging systems and other prominent applications is reported. Using an MRI-derived model, the phantom is 3-D-printed using a laser sintering material to represent the external tissue layers starting from the skull. The skull cavity is filled with the help of 3-D-printed molds with tissue-mimicking mixtures that are formed using low-cost ingredients. The included tissues are gray matter, white matter, Dura, CSF, eye, cerebellum, spinal cord, and blood. Our measurements indicate that the properties of the fabricated tissues are stable with time and agree with the real properties with less than 5% variation across the band 0.5-4 GHz, which is widely utilized in various imaging and mobile applications.