Spatial sampling requirements for multistatic Breast Microwave Radar imaging

Breast Microwave Radar is a novel imaging modality for early stage cancer detection. In the last couple of years, multistatic imaging protocols have been used for BMR due to their increased specificity and sensitivity. Nevertheless, several aspects of this data acquisition methodology need to be optimized so they can be used in clinical scenarios. In this paper, a novel mathematical model of the spatial sampling constraints for a BMR cylindrical multistatic scan geometry is proposed. This model was derived by analyzing the bounds of the spherical phase function of a generic multistatic scan geometry. The validity of the model was evaluated using numeric phantoms that mimic the dielectric properties of breast tissues. The results are consistent with mathematical model, suggesting that the model presented in this paper can be used to assist in the design of multistatic BMR systems.