Microwave breast imaging: Time-domain experiments on tissue phantoms

This paper presents measurements performed with our time-domain system for microwave breast imaging. We demonstrate that, in the time-domain, skin does not decrease the tumor detection ability as compared to phantoms without skin. In fact, in certain cases a skin layer is shown to increase tumor response. The experimental set-up uses ultra-wideband antennas and tissue phantoms with electrical properties approximating those of actual tissue. Tumor detection experiments are conducted on two types of breast phantoms - simple ones containing only fat and malignant tissue, and more realistic ones, incorporating a thin layer of skin, fat and tumor, along with a matching medium between the skin and the antennas.