Experimental Validation of a Numerical Model for Thermoacoustic Imaging Applications

Owing to its intrinsic advantages of favorable contrast and spatial resolution, microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging (TAI) has drawn great attention in biomedical imaging applications, such as breast cancer detection. Many experimental studies have demonstrated the promising potential of TAI. Several TAI modeling studies have also been published that facilitate the design and optimization of TAI systems. However, experimental validation of the modeling results is rarely seen; thus it is highly desirable to prove the effectiveness of the modeling approach. In this letter, the TAI modeling approach previously described by our group is validated by experiments. A three-dimensional printed polymer slab with featured structures is used as the sample to be investigated by both the model and the experiment. Images are obtained to reveal the featured structures in the slab from both the modeling and experimental results. Rigorous comparisons between the modeling and experimental imaging results are carried out. The achieved good agreement between the images corroborates the validity of the TAI modeling approach and thereby encourages more applications of it.