Mathematical simulation of microwave scattering in the medium with characteristic features of biological tissues and prospectives of microwave tomography

Abstract

Computer aided tomography is used today in many areas of science and technology, such as biology, medicine, geophysics, plasma physics, non-destructive introscopy and state control of heat-radiation elements at nuclear power plants, cartography, etc. Microwave imaging is one of the prospective methods of tomography. It is based on the retrieval of dielectric properties of a solid body irradiated by an electromagnetic wave of microwave band.

Scanning the scientific and technical literature, including a special medical one, and experimental data, reveals the doubtless merits of microwave imaging. Among them are the using of safe levels of power of non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation and the possibility of visualization of biological processes in a real time scale. Also, the development of microwave systems has comparatively low cost as such technologies are widely employed in radars and telecommunications.

The paper deals with the technique of calculation of microwave field scattering on dielectric inhomogeneities in stratified medium. The technique is based on determining the difference between the fields in the space housing the investigated object, in the presence and absence of dielectric inhomogeneity.

The results obtained by mathematical simulation enable one to conclude about the size, shape, and location of cylindrical inhomogeneity in the medium having the properties of biological tissues.