Microwave Breast Imaging Techniques and Measurement Systems

Electromagnetic waves at microwave frequencies allow penetration into many optically non-transparent mediums such as biological tissues. Over the past 30 years, researchers have extensively investigated microwave imaging (MI) approaches including imaging algorithms, measurement systems and applications in biomedical fields, such as breast tumor detection, brain stroke detection, heart imaging and bone imaging. Successful clinical trials of MI for breast imaging brought worldwide excitation, and this achievement further confirmed that the MI has potential to become a low-risk and cost-effective alternative to existing medical imaging tools such as X-ray mammography for early breast cancer detection. This chapter offers comprehensive descriptions of the most important MI approaches for early breast cancer detection, including reconstruction procedures and measurement systems as well as apparatus.