Physical phantoms for microwave imaging of the breast

Abstract

Research on microwave imaging for medical diagnostics has recently expanded significantly. There is substantial need for physical phantoms in order to conduct experiments. These phantoms should mimic the electrical properties of the target tissues. They must also have certain mechanical properties. This paper proposes recipes for breast tissue and malignant tumor phantoms that have been tested and used in experiments for over two years now. These phantoms mimic breast tissues in the ultra-wideband (UWB) frequency range from 3 GHz to 10 GHz. The recipes presented here use non-biological materials.