Accurate breast surface imaging method with FDTD-based waveform correction for microwave mammography

Microwave mammography is promising alternative from X-ray based imaging modality, in terms of compactness, low cost and cell-friendly exposure. The most important part of this modality is a suppression of surface reflection clutters, which can be enhanced by combining accurate surface shape estimation. The coupling effect between antenna and breast surface degrades accuracy in the shape estimation, which is caused by a mismatch between reference and observed waveform. To solve this problem, this paper incorporates the Envelope-based shape estimation and FDTD-based waveform correction with a fractional derivative adjustment. Numerical simulation based on realistic breast phantom derived from MRI show that our proposed method significantly enhance the accuracy for breast surface imaging and the SCR (signal to clutter ratio) by suppressing a skin reflection.