Quantitative Microwave Imaging of Realistic Numerical Breast Phantoms Using an Enclosed Array of Multiband, Miniaturized Patch Antennas

Abstract

We present a 3-D microwave breast imaging study in which we reconstruct the dielectric profiles of MRI-derived numerical breast phantoms from simulated array measurements using an enclosed array of multiband, miniaturized patch antennas. The array is designed to overcome challenges relating to the ill-posed nature of the inverse scattering system. We use a multifrequency formulation of the distorted Born iterative method to image four normal-tissue breast phantoms, each corresponding to a different density class. The reconstructed fibroglandular distributions are very faithful to the true distributions in location and basic shape. These results establish the feasibility of using an enclosed array of miniaturized, multiband patch antennas for quantitative microwave breast imaging.

Multiband Miniaturized Patch Antennas for a Compact, Shielded Microwave Breast Imaging Array

“…In particular, the regions of higher-permittivity fibroglandular tissue are faithfully reconstructed, albeit at a relatively low resolution that is characteristic of microwave imaging in the UHF band. Such imaging quality has been obtained for numerical breast phantoms representing all four classes of breast density [41]. …”

A TSVD Analysis of the Impact of Polarization on Microwave Breast Imaging Using an Enclosed Array of Miniaturized Patch Antennas

“…The dimensions of the patch antennas are given in [4]; the operating frequencies are the resonant frequencies of the TM 100 and TM 300 modes: 1.6 GHz and 3.02 GHz, respectively. Each array consists of six panels arranged to form a box with the antennas radiating into the interior.…”

“…Each array consists of six panels arranged to form a box with the antennas radiating into the interior. This array design is similar to that of [4]: we use the same dimensions for the enclosed array, but we use more antennas and different antenna layouts on the side panels. In all cases the bottom panel of the enclosed array is bare substrate backed with solid copper, the side panels are solid copper-backed substrate with patch antennas etched on the inside face, and the top panel is copper with a hole cut in the center to allow the breast to extend into the array from the top.…”

“…The antennas are slot-loaded patches on ground-plane-backed substrate [4]. All four side panels in a given array have the same configuration.…”

“…The utility of this method was previously demonstrated for microwave breast imaging using an open array of idealized dipole antennas [3]. In this paper we apply the technique to an enclosed/shielded array of miniaturized patch antennas recently proposed for microwave breast imaging [4] to address the following question: What is the impact of array topology and antenna orientation (and thus polarization) on the quality of the measured data?…”