Symmetrical and Asymmetrical Breast Phantoms With 3D-Printed Anatomical Structure for Microwave Imaging of Breast Cancer

Abstract

In this study, various breast phantom (BP) models for microwave breast imaging (MBI) are investigated and the creation and assessment of designed models are presented. Symmetrical and asymmetrical BP models have been constructed. based on 3D printed structures stuffed with various mixed material combinations that roles various breast tissue layers (skin, healthy fat tissue, glandular tissue, heterogeneous mix tissue, and tumor tissue) in terms of permittivity over the ultra-wide band frequency (3.1-10.6GHz) range. However, the main issue in making such phantoms is coming up with adequate material mixes that mimic those characteristics across the frequency band, as well as creating the phantom with realistic approach. The complex dielectric characteristics are tested after fabrication with a dielectric probe kit coupled to a VNA. Then, the measured complex dielectric properties are compared to the real human breast dielectric values. The symmetrical and asymmetrical phantoms' integrated structure allows the tumor and BPs to be dynamically combined to provide a test setup based on MBI technologies. Once the breast phantom has been produced, antenna arrays are positioned around it to collect scattering parameter data for tumor characterization. Finally, the extracted feature data was used to reconstruct the image in order to find the undesirable tumor component within the breast phantom using an imaging algorithm.