Multi-frequency holographic microwave imaging for breast lesion detection

Abstract

This paper presents the development of a multi-frequency holographic microwave imaging (HMI) algorithm and investigates the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm for breast imaging. A realistic numerical system, including various realistic breast models and image data acquisition model, has been developed using the MATLAB software to demonstrate the working principle of the multi-frequency HMI method. Several numerical experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method for breast tumor detection. A comparison study of single- and multi-frequency HMIs have been performed to investigate the effectiveness, sensitivity, and accuracy of the proposed method. Results demonstrated that the multi-frequency HMI could improve the breast image quality and accurately detect the small tumors even when they located inside dense tissue. Compared to the single-frequency HMI, the multi-frequency imaging approach could obtain detailed structural information about the breast and identify small lesions more accurately and effectively. The proposed method has the potential to become a great and helpful vision tool for investigating microwave diagnostic techniques.