Microwave radiometry in living tissue: what does it measure?

The sensitivity of microwave radiometry for detecting subcutaneous targets was studied both experimentally and theoretically. The radiometer used a dielectric loaded rectangular waveguide antenna in contact with a lossy dielectric medium. A cylindrical target with dielectric properties and/or temperature different from that of the surrounding medium was located beneath this surface. The results indicate that microwave radiometry responds to the temperature averaged over the field pattern of the antenna with very strong weighting of regions near the surface. A simple quasi-static analysis provides a good indication of the sensitivity of the technique for detecting cylindrical targets whose dielectric properties are different from those of the surrounding medium.