Electromagnetic Characterization of Breast Tissue Phantoms in D-Band Regime

Abstract

The potential of higher band millimeter waves to characterize different types of breast tissues based on the dielectric contrast between normal and malignant tissues has been reported. Low–cost phantom samples of normal and malignant tissues have been prepared using naturally occurring components, <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">i.e.</i> , agar, water, olive oil, and pectin. A waveguide probe-based calibration technique was used to extract the complex permittivities of the two-component (water–agar) and three-component (water-oil–agar) phantoms. The two-component phantoms were used to study the change in the dielectric properties of phantom with change in agar concentration. Water, agar, and varying proportions of oil were used to develop three-component phantom mixtures to mimic the dielectric properties of fat, fibrous and malignant breast tissues. Finally, the reflection and transmission properties of tissue-mimicking phantoms were tested using the waveguide probe calibration-based measurement setup. The difference in the S parameters between the three types of phantoms demonstrates the potential utility of D band-based data acquisition setups for tumor margin assessment applications <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">.</b>