A Prototype System of Microwave Induced Thermo-Acoustic Tomography for Breast Tumor

Microwave-induced thermo-acoustic tomography (MITAT) is an innovative technique for tumor's detection. Due to there has high contrast in terms with permittivity and electrical conductivity of tumor versus normal tissue, even if the tumor still in the early phase it can be imaged clearly. For the proposed MITAT system, low energy microwave pulses are used as the irradiating signals, while the received signals are ultrasound, high contrast and high resolution images can be obtained. After some theoretical research and basic fundamental experiments, the first prototype of experimental system is designed and built. It includes the microwave radiator, the arrayed sensor bowl, the circular scanning platform, the system controller and the signal processor. Based on the experimental results using this integral MITAT clinic system, the images contrast can be reached higher than 383:1; while the sub-millimeter special resolution is obtained for a 1cm(3) scale tumor mimic.