Linear frequency modulated thermal wave imaging for estimation of osteoporosis: an analytical approach

Abstract

Active infrared thermography or thermal wave imaging is one of the promising non-contact, non-invasive, remote, patient friendly and safe imaging modality for the testing and evaluation of various bio-materials. Among various thermal wave imaging modalities recently proposed, frequency modulated thermal wave imaging gained its acceptance due to its high depth resolvability for visualising the surface and sub-surface features of the test sample. This is due to its continuous depth scanning capabilities with the imposed continuous band of thermal waves with significant and equal magnitudes into the test sample with moderate peak power imposed heat flux in a limited span of experimentation time. This Letter highlights a novel analytical approach for examination of the severity of the osteoporosis. Further, the proposed analytical treatment is validated with the results obtained from the commercially available finite-element based modelling and simulation.