Improved Anomaly Characterization in Biological Tissues Through Relative Permittivity Estimation

Microwave imaging for biomedical applications still suffers from imprecise reconstruction of the relative permittivity (εr) of tissues. Most of the traditional methods employing qualitative measures find it difficult to simultaneously estimate the location and size of the anomaly. This work presents a novel two step approach for improving the detection (location and dimension) of anomaly in biological tissues in microwave imaging. In the proposed two step approach, the electrical distance (Dmeas) of the antenna from the biological phantom is determined and the effective relative permittivity (εeff) is iteratively estimated. Utilizing the computed Dmeas and εeff, the obtained microwave image is enhanced so as to have better anomaly localization and precise dimension estimation. The enhancement through this approach can assist in minimizing false alarms and serve as prescreening technique for anomaly detection using microwave imaging.