AN INTEGRATED SIMULATION APPROACH AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH ON MICROWAVE INDUCED THERMO-ACOUSTIC TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM

Microwave induced thermo-acoustic tomography (MITAT) has great potential in early breast cancer detection because it utilizes the advantages of both microwave imaging and ultrasound imaging. In this paper, we develop a fast and efficient simulation approach based on a hybrid method which combines finite integration time domain (FITD) method and pseudo-spectral time domain (PSTD) method is developed. By using this approach, energy deposition of biology tissue illuminated by electromagnetic fields can be accurately simulated. Meanwhile, acoustic properties of the tissue can be efficiently simulated as well. Compared to traditional methods, such as finite difference time domain (FDTD), et al, the developed method can well process real 3-D electromagnetic-acoustic complex models. Based on this approach, a MITAT model is created and some simulated results are analyzed. Furthermore, some real breast tissues are adopted to perform the thermo-acoustic imaging experiment. Comparisons between experimental and simulated results are made. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach are demonstrated by both numerical simulations and experimental results.