A computational investigation of microwave breast imaging using deformable reflector

In recent years, active microwave breast imaging is increasingly being viewed as a,promising complementary imaging modality for cancer detection. In this paper, we present a novel deformable reflector microwave tomography technique for noninvasive characterization of the breast tissue. In contrast to conventional multitransceiver designs, the proposed technique utilizes a continuously deformable reflector with metallic coating to acquire field measurements for imaging. Computational feasibility of the proposed technique to image heterogeneous dielectric tissue property is evaluated using simplified 2-D breast models. The robustness of the deformable reflector-based tomography technique in imaging the spatial distribution of the tissue dielectric property in the presence of measurement noise is investigated using first-order Tikhonov regularization. Preliminary results obtained for the 2-D breast models appear promising and indicate further investigation of the new microwave tomography technique for breast imaging.