Simulation study of microwave imaging for brain disease diagnostic

Abstract

Brain tumour result by abnormal growth and division of cell inside the skull show high potential to become malignancies and lead to brain damage or even death. Early detection is crucial for further treatment to increase the survival rate of patients who have brain cancer. Existing clinical imaging possess limitation as they are costly, time-consuming and some of them depend on ionising radiation. The microwave imaging has emerged as the new preliminary diagnosis method as it is portable, non-ionising, low cost, and able to produce a good spatial resolution. This paper will be discussing the microwave head based sensing and imaging techniques for brain tumour diagnosis. The 2D FEM approach is applied to solve the forward problem, and the image is reconstructed by implementing linear back projection. Eight rectangular sensing electrodes are arranged in an elliptical array around the head phantom. When one electrode is transmitting the microwave, the remaining of the electrode served as the receiver. The different tumour position is simulated to test the reliability of the system. Lastly, the system is able to detect the tumour, and 1 GHz is chosen as the best frequency based on the simulation and image reconstructed.