High fidelity breast phantom and its microwave imaging by CP-MCT

Phantom model of breasts whose three-dimensional shape, size, and dielectric properties are very similar to real breasts of a woman has been developed for imaging experiments of Chirp Pulse Microwave Computed Tomography (CP-MCT). The breast model is consisted of four kinds of simulated tissues i.e., skin, muscle, breast fat, and tumor tissue. By using this, feasibility of clinical application of CP-MCT has been investigated. Not only three-dimensional shape of the phantom but also permittivity values of those four simulated tissues agree well with those of real human tissues. Microwave imaging is taken place by immersing the developed breast phantom and antennas in saline solution in order to minimize the diffraction at the skin surface. Chirp pulse microwave from 2 to 3 GHz is radiated from transmitting antenna by keeping the sweep time at 20 milliseconds. Image processing which boosts small signal components of the measured signal makes us possible to visualize the tumor shape in the tomography images of CP-MCT.