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Active Microwave Imaging II: 3-D System Prototype and Image

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
Active Microwave Imaging II: 3-D System Prototype
and Image Reconstruction From Experimental Data
Chun Yu, Senior Member, IEEE, Mengqing Yuan, John Stang, Elan Bresslour,
Rhett T. George, Gary A. Ybarra, Senior Member, IEEE,
William T. Joines, Fellow, IEEE, and Qing Huo Liu, Fellow, IEEE
Abstract—A 3-D microwave imaging system prototype and an
inverse scattering algorithm are developed to demonstrate the fea-
sibility of 3-D microwave imaging for medical applications such as
breast cancer detection with measured data. In this experimental
prototype, the transmitting and receiving antennas are placed in a
rectangular tub containing a fluid. The microwave scattering data
are acquired by mechanically scanning a single transmit antenna
and a single receive antenna, thus avoiding the mutual coupling
that occurs when an array is used. Careful design and construc-
tion of the system has yielded accurate measurements of scattered
fields so that even the weak scattered signals at 21 =
90 dB (or
30 dB below the background fields) can be measured accurately.
Measurements are performed in the frequency domain at several
discrete frequencies. The collected 3-D experimental data in fluid
are processed by a 3-D nonlinear inverse scattering algorithm to
unravel the complicated multiple scattering effects and produce
high-resolution 3-D digital images of the dielectric constant and
conductivity of the imaging domain. Dielectric objects as small as
5 mm in size have been imaged effectively at 1.74 GHz.
Index Terms—Born iterative method, breast cancer detection,
diagonal tensor approximation, distorted Born iterative method,
inverse scattering, microwave imaging, nonlinear inverse scat-
tering algorithm, stabilized biconjugate-gradient fast Fourier
transform (FFT) algorithm.
I. INTRODUCTION
T IS of practical significance to detect, locate, characterize,
I and image tumors in healthy tissue of the breast. Over
the last two decades, intensive investigations have been con-
ducted for early breast cancer detection using microwaves (e.g.,
[1]–[23]). These studies include confocal microwave imaging
[6], [7], [12]–[14], 2-D microwave topographic imaging [8],
[9], [11], and 3-D active microwave tomographic imaging
[15]–[17]. Microwave imaging has been proposed for breast
detection [8], [9], [6], [7] because of its potentially high speci-
ficity for breast cancer diagnosis due to the high contrast in
electrical properties between normal and malignant human
breast tissues. The electrical properties of normal and malig-
nant human breast tissues have been a subject of great interest
over the last two decades. It has been reported that a significant
contrast in electrical properties at microwave frequencies exists
Manuscript received June 9, 2007; revised November 1, 2007. This work
was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Grant
5R01CA102768-02.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0291 USA (e-mail: qhliu@ee.duke.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2008.919661
0018-9480/$25.00 © 2008 IEEE
991
between normal and malignant human breast tissues [3]. This
high contrast is due to significantly different sodium concentra-
tions, fluid contents, and electrochemical properties. A recent
research on the variability of normal breast tissue properties
[21] reveals that the breast can, in fact, be quite heterogeneous,
and this may pose a significant challenge for microwave breast
imaging, although actual clinical tests in [22] and [23] have
demonstrated the significant potential and new advances of
microwave breast imaging from previous simulations and
phantom studies.
Previously, microwave imaging has been reported primarily
based on numerical simulation data and on 2-D reconstruction.
Only recently has imaging from 3-D experimental data been re-
ported based on space–time beamforming [20] and tomographic
reconstruction [15]. For a more thorough review, the reader is
referred to [12], [18], and [19]. Our previous work, presented in
[11], [16], [17], and [19], focused on theoretical modeling and
numerical investigation of active microwave imaging to demon-
strate the feasibility of 3-D microwave imaging for breast cancer
detection using fast volume integral-equation solvers and non-
linear inverse scattering algorithms. In this study, we further
demonstrate the feasibility of a high-resolution 3-D microwave
imaging system with accurate experimental data. We will dis-
cuss the design of a 3-D experimental prototype and utilize some
recently improved simulation and reconstruction algorithms for
3-D microwave imaging simulation and image reconstruction.
The 3-D microwave imaging system prototype consists of one
transmitting and one receiving dipole antenna that are placed in
a rectangular tub containing fluid. To avoid mutual coupling, we
do not use an array of antennas in this study; instead, we scan
the receiving antenna using a positioner (stepper motor). Mea-
surements are performed in continuous wave (CW) mode for
both background (without objects) and with anomalous objects
in the fluid, with the corresponding fields called the “incident”
and “total” fields, respectively. The “scattered” field is obtained
by subtracting the incident field from the total field. The col-
lected 3-D scattered field is then processed by a newly devel-
oped 3-D hybrid nonlinear inverse scattering method based on
the combination of several algorithms, which are: (1) the diag-
onal tensor approximation [27]–[29] combined with the Born
iterative method to produce an approximate image rapidly and
(2) the stabilized biconjugate-gradient fast Fourier transform
(FFT) method [25], [26], [30]–[32] combined with the distorted
Born iterative method to solve the full 3-D nonlinear inverse
problem. To test the capability of the microwave imaging system
with the proposed 3-D nonlinear inverse scattering algorithm,
reconstructions from experimentally measured data have been
992
Fig. 1. Experimental setup of microwave imaging system prototype. Two
dipole antennas are placed in a rectangular tub containing a lossy fluid. The
2 2
dimension of the tub is 54 40 38 cm . The distance of the antennas from
the tub walls is at least 15 cm during scanning so that the reflection from the
tub walls is negligible.
performed. High-resolution reconstructed results are presented
for multiple objects in fluid. Here we note that the proposed
algorithm and system has been tested against accurate experi-
mental data, while the experimental model is based on a simpli-
fied scenario, rather than a real breast. We are currently studying
microwave imaging for more realistic breast phantoms.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II presents a
description of the experimental 3-D microwave tomographic
imaging system, including the system prototype, the design and
performance of the transmitting and receiving dipole antennas,
and the measurement procedure for 3-D data acquisition.
Section III summarizes the inverse scattering algorithm used in
this study. Reconstructed results from experimental data and
discussions are presented in Section IV. Finally, conclusions
are given in Section V.
II. 3-D MICROWAVE IMAGING SYSTEM
A. System Overview
As shown in Fig. 1, the experimental 3-D microwave
imaging system consists of two dipole antennas (one acting
as a transmitter and the other as a receiver), a rectangular tub
as an imaging chamber, one automatic positioner (two-axis
stage controller: SHOT-602), and an HP 8753E vector network
analyzer. The tub is filled with either a fluid with electrical
properties matching those of normal breast tissue or water.
The automatic positioner, serving as a mechanical scanning
system, moves the transmitting and/or receiving antennas in
the fluid through a series of locations with high precision. As
a result, the 3-D data acquisition is implemented with flexible
multiview transmitters/receivers on given measuring surfaces
around the object to be imaged. This setup avoids the issue of
mutual coupling in an actual array. The HP network analyzer
is used to collect both the incident field (i.e., the field when
no anomalous objects are in the chamber) and the total field
(i.e., the field in the presence of anomalous objects in the
chamber) in the form of scattering parameters ( -parameters).
In particular, measurements with and without objects in the
imaging domain inside the chamber (corresponding to the total
field and incident field ) are recorded (these parameters
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
Fig. 2. (a) Geometry of the dipole antenna with a balun to reduce the radiation
from the outer conductor of the semirigid coaxial cable. (b) Measured return
loss S of two dipole antennas in water.
will be defined later). The positioner, its scanning speed and
location, and the collection of data by the network analyzer are
controlled by a desktop computer. The collection time needed
for each receiver position is 3 s.
There are several advantages of this microwave imaging
system prototype, which are: (1) the coupling between mul-
tiple transmitting antennas and receiving antennas in a typical
high-resolution 3-D microwave imaging system is minimized
due to the use of scanning antennas, thus simplifying the
design; (2) the antenna positions are known to a high precision
(3 m); and (3) the system does not require switching devices
as in systems containing multiple antenna array elements, thus
reducing the additional noise and loss from these switching
devices. The main disadvantage of this system is its relatively
long acquisition time, but this is not a critical issue during
prototyping and will be improved in the clinical version.
B. Design and Performance of Antennas
The data acquisition of the 3-D microwave imaging system
requires accurate and sensitive measurements of the scattered
electromagnetic waves. To achieve this aim, a linearly polarized
dipole antenna has been designed to function as both the trans-
mitting antenna and the receiving antenna. Fig. 2(a) shows the
geometry of the dipole antenna. The two arms of the linearly
polarized dipole antenna were made from the inner and outer
conductors of a semirigid coaxial cable. The total length of the
two arms is . A matching balun of length is formed at the
front-end of the antenna to reduce the radiation from the outer
YU et al.: ACTIVE MICROWAVE IMAGING II: 3-D SYSTEM PROTOTYPE AND IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION FROM EXPERIMENTAL DATA 993

respectively. If the transmitting and receiving dipole antennas

are oriented in the and directions, the signal measured at
the receiver is

(1)

for the incident field when only the background medium exists
(i.e., no objects are in the imaging domain), and

(2)
0
Fig. 3. Example of transmitting dipole locations (on a plane at x = 4:1 cm)
and receiver locations (on a plane at x = 4:1 cm) along five dotted lines sepa- for the total field when there are objects in the imaging domain.
rated by 1 cm in the z -direction, each with 21 points (increments of 0.4 cm in
2
the y -direction). The total number of receiver points is 5 21 = 105 for each In the above, the incident field and the total field
transmitter location. at the receiver depend on the orientation of
the transmitting dipole antenna and the dyadic Green’s func-
tion. is a network analyzer calibration constant such that the
conductor of the coaxial cable. Antennas of various dimensions -parameter is equal to one when ports 1 and 2 are directly
have been designed and fabricated for matching fluid ( , connected.
S m) and water in the chamber. In particular, for the From the incident and total field measurements, we can obtain
dipole in water, we chose mm. the scattered signal
Fig. 2(b) shows the measured for two fabricated dipole
antennas in water. The return loss of these two antennas is below
11 dB at 1.74 GHz, and they are well matched to work at a (3)
common optimal frequency with a bandwidth of approximately
200 MHz. The difference between the values of the two where is the scattered field at the receiver location due
antennas is due to a small difference between the antennas in to the presence of anomalous objects in the imaging domain.
size. These fabricated dipole antennas were also characterized In the general case, there are transmitter locations, each
experimentally for radiation into a matching fluid with a rela- with receiver locations. The scattering parameter is
tive permittivity of 20 and a conductivity of 0.16 S/m. For this measured for each transmitter–receiver combination. Therefore,
matching fluid, the measured return loss is below 15 dB at there are complex data points for , corresponding
the optimal frequency of 2.7 GHz for both transmitting and re- to the th receiver signal due to the th transmitter excitation.
ceiving antennas. From this set of data, the complex permittivity distribution
in the imaging domain can be found using an image reconstruc-
C. 3-D Data Acquisition tion algorithm.
In microwave breast cancer detection, tomographic imaging
is achieved by transmitting a sequence of electromagnetic waves III. IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM
through the breast and measuring the scattered fields around the The objective of the image reconstruction algorithm is to infer
breast. For the experimental prototype shown in Fig. 1, the trans- the complex permittivity distribution in the
mitting antenna sends out electromagnetic waves to illuminate imaging domain , where and are the unknown di-
a breast phantom placed in a fluid background that matches the electric constant and electrical conductivity, respectively. Con-
breast in terms of electrical parameters; for each transmitting sider a general 3-D inhomogeneous object with in a back-
antenna position, the receiving antenna collects the fields at dif- ground medium with . The integral equation governing the
ferent locations controlled by the positioner with a locating ac- inverse problem [33] is
curacy of approximately 3 m. The transmitting antenna is not
scanned automatically in this experimental setup. An example
of the transmitting dipole location distribution (on a plane at
cm) and the receiver-scanning pattern (on a plane (4)
at cm) is shown in Fig. 3. The multiple views of the
receiving antenna are obtained by scanning on five lines (incre- where the magnetic permeability in the target is assumed to be
ments of 1 cm in the -direction) with 21 points along each line the same as in the background medium, is the transmitter
(increments of 0.4 cm in the -direction), resulting in a total location, is an electric dyadic Green’s function due to
number of receiver points of . an electric current source, and is the contrast function de-
The microwave signals at the receiving antenna are measured fined as
in the form of scattering parameters (or -parameters) through
the HP vector network analyzer with its two ports connected to (5)
the transmitter and receiver. Consider just two antennas in the
system, one for transmitting and the other for receiving. The Methods for solving the above inverse problem include the Born
complex scattering parameters are , , and , iterative method, the distorted Born iterative method, and the
where subscripts 1 and 2 refer to the transmitter and receiver, contrast source inversion (see [34]–[39] for more details). In
994 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
this study, we utilize a hybrid inversion method, as summarized
below.
A. Forward Solver
A forward solver is necessary in an inversion method such as
the Born iterative method or the distorted Born iterative method
to calculate the predicted measured data and the gradient infor-
mation. The first task of the forward solver is to calculate the
electric field inside the imaging domain (i.e., ) in (4). The
scattered field at any receiver location on a surface can then
be calculated as
(6)
Equation (6) is called the data equation, as it defines the scat-
tered field at the observation point. In contrast, the integral equa-
tion (4) for is called the object equation, and can be
solved by using the full-wave stabilized biconjugate-gradient
FFT method, or by using approximation methods such as the
diagonal tensor approximation. In this paper, we use a hybrid
technique [40] by combining the diagonal tensor approxima-
tion and the stabilized biconjugate-gradient FFT method where
the diagonal tensor approximation acts as a preconditioner for
the stabilized biconjugate-gradient FFT method. Such a hybrid
method has the advantage that, for low-to-moderate contrasts,
the diagonal tensor approximation alone will give accurate re-
sults without going through the stabilized biconjugate-gradient
FFT iterations; for high contrasts, the diagonal tensor approx-
imation gives a good preconditioner so that the stabilized bi-
conjugate-gradient FFT iterations will converge rapidly. Thus,
both low- and high-contrast problems can be solved efficiently
and accurately by this hybrid method.
B. Nonlinear Inverse Scattering Method
In the inverse scattering problem, the total number of data
points collected is . Suppose the imaging do-
main is discretized into small voxels. By using the trape-
zoidal rule, the data equation with the unknown contrast func-
tion can be discretized as follows:
(7)
where is an -dimensional data column vector whose ele-
ments are the measured scattered electric field collected by the
receiver, is the volume of each voxel, and
and denote the indices for the receiver and
transmitter, respectively. For measurements and dis-
cretized voxels, (7) can be written compactly as
(8)
where represents the simulated scattering fields, is an
-dimensional column vector of the contrast function , and
is an matrix whose elements are given by
(9)
where and . tions caused by an outer boundary of the fluid container, we
Since the total field within the objects (and in the dis-
torted Born iterative method) is an unknown function of the ma-
terial contrast function , (8) is a nonlinear equation in . More-
over, the limited amount of information makes the problem ill
posed. The Born iterative method [34] or the distorted Born iter-
ative method [35]–[37] can be used to solve the above nonlinear
inverse scattering equation. In this study, we use an algorithm
combining the diagonal tensor approximation and the Born it-
erative method to obtain an initial reconstruction for a fast es-
timate of the image, and then use an algorithm combining the
stabilized biconjugate-gradient FFT and the distorted Born iter-
ative method to provide an accurate and fast inversion.
In iterative inversion algorithm, since the actual location of
the objects to be imaged is not given, we can only rely on the
data misfit information to determine whether the inversion has
converged. Thus, we define the relative data residual error RES
as
(10)
where and are the th measured and simulated scat-
tered field, respectively. When this data residual reduces to a
predetermined criterion (e.g., 0.1%), or when the residual error
changes very little between subsequent iterations (e.g., 0.1%),
or when a maximum iteration number is reached, the inversion
iteration is terminated.
In the first-step inversion from experimental data, the stop-
ping criteria is related to the above relative data residual error
and a maximum iteration number. When the data error is less
than the small number (e.g., 0.1%), or when the iteration ex-
ceeds the maximum iteration number (10), the first-step inver-
sion is terminated and the inversion is switched into the second-
step inversion using the stabilized biconjugate-gradient FFT and
the distorted Born iterative method. The CPU time on an AMD
Opteron Processor 250 is approximately 2 min/iteration for this
first-step inversion. Finally the iteration in the second-step in-
version stops with a given number of iteration (e.g., 20). The
flowchart of the computer program for the algorithm combining
the diagonal tensor approximation and the Born iterative method
for the microwave imaging system is shown in Fig. 4. The flow-
chart of the algorithm combining the stabilized biconjugate-gra-
dient FFT and the distorted Born iterative method is the same
as shown in Fig. 4, except that “Updating Diagonal Tensor and
Solving Expected Scattered Field by DTA” in the box should
be replaced with “Updating Green’s Function and Solving Ex-
pected Scattered Field by BCGS-FFT.” The CPU time on an
AMD Opteron Processor 250 is approximately 10 min/iteration
for this second-step inversion. Note that the above performance
of the codes has not been optimized; furthermore, the codes have
been developed for the more general case of objects embedded
in a layered medium, thus there is an overhead for the compu-
tation of Green’s functions.
IV. MICROWAVE IMAGING FROM MEASURED DATA
In order to avoid the environmental effects from the reflec-
YU et al.: ACTIVE MICROWAVE IMAGING II: 3-D SYSTEM PROTOTYPE AND IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION FROM EXPERIMENTAL DATA
Fig. 4. Flowchart of the algorithm combining the diagonal tensor approxima-
tion (DTA) and the Born iterative method (BIM) for microwave imaging.
use a large container and fill it with water (measured , Since experimental data sets are measured by linearly polar-
S m). The following examples use the microwave
imaging system shown in Fig. 1 to collect the scattered data.
In our experiments, dielectric spheres made of clay of various
diameters have been used. The clay material has been measured
to have a dielectric constant of approximately 5 and lossless;
however, when immersed in water, it is likely that the dielec-
tric constant and conductivity increase because the material is
slightly porous. Measurements have been made to determine the
dielectric constant and conductivity changes during immersion
in water, and the results have shown that there is a small change
less than 15% for both dielectric constant and conductivity be-
fore and after immersion. Such objects have large contrasts with
the background medium, and thus large multiple scattering ef-
fects are expected.
The transmission coefficient ( ) between the transmitter
and receiver, both polarized in the -direction and separated
by 8.2 cm in water, is measured as a function of frequency,
as shown in Fig. 5. The five curves in Fig. 5 represent the
background without object (solid line), the total with
a clay ball of 0.5-cm diameter placed at the center of the two
antennas (heavy dotted curve), the total with two metallic
spheres of 0.5-cm diameter (lighter dotted curve), the scattered
obtained from (3) for a clay ball (dashed curve), and for two
metallic spheres (dashed–dotted curve), respectively. It is noted
that at 1.74 GHz, corresponding to the common frequency for
the -parameters shown in Fig. 2, the background is ap-
proximately 42 dB, while the scattered is approximately
995
Fig. 5. Measured jS j versus frequency for a pair of dipole antennas sepa-
rated by 8.2 cm in water. Solid line: S without object; heavy dotted line: S
with an clay ball of 5-mm diameter located at the center of the two antennas;
lighter dotted line: S with two metal balls of 5-mm diameter (the locations of
two metal balls are the same as the example in Section IV-C). Dashed line: the
scattered field S for a clay ball. Dashed–dotted line: the scattered field S
for two metal balls.
67 dB, or 25 dB lower than the background field for the clay
ball placed at the center of the two antennas, and approximately
59 dB, or 17 dB lower than the background field for the two
metallic spheres. The use of a lower frequency would yield
a weaker scattered field, as well as lower resolution in image
reconstruction. The following examples will use 1.74-GHz mi-
crowaves to image small objects in water. Although the objects
and water in our initial experiments are not exactly equivalent
to tumors and normal breast tissue, it serves as a good test
for our 3-D inverse scattering algorithm and 3-D microwave
imaging experimental setup. Current research is investigating
more realistic phantoms and imaging by array antennas.
ized resonant dipole antennas, a calibration procedure is used
in the image reconstruction algorithm with an infinitesimal
electric dipole having the same polarization as the finite-length
dipole. In fact, the radiation field patterns from a short dipole
and a resonant dipole are very similar within the viewing
angles of the given antenna array. The difference between
the measured data and simulated data can be calibrated out
with a scale factor or a simple normalization procedure. In the
following imaging examples, we use a normalization procedure
in which the normalization factor is the measured background
field and the simulated background field, respectively, at the
same receiver location.
A. Microwave Imaging With One Dielectric Ball
The first example utilizes a small dielectric sphere of 0.5-cm
diameter placed at the center of the chamber (also the center
of the imaging domain and the origin), as shown in Fig. 6. To
produce multiple source excitations, the dipole transmitting
antenna is placed at nine locations on the plane cm
with , , where cm, and
cm. As shown in Fig. 3, the receiving antenna collects
multiview microwave field information by scanning automat-
ically at 105 locations on the opposite side with cm
and , , where , cm, and
, cm. Only the -polarized field is collected
since the two antennas are oriented in the same vertical direc-
tion. Measurements are performed in the frequency domain
996 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
Fig. 6. Imaging of a dielectric sphere in water using nine transmitter and 105 re-
0
ceiver locations. The transmitting antenna is placed on the plane x = 4:1 cm.
The receiving antenna scans on the plane x = 4:1 cm.
Fig. 7. Reconstructed permittivity profile for a 0.5-cm clay ball from measured
data in 3-D plots using: (a) the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative
method and (b) the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative
method; the reconstructed permittivity profile on the x = 0 plane using: (c) the
diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative method and (d) the stabilized bi-
conjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method.
at several discrete frequencies. Here, only single-frequency
reconstructed results are presented. For the first example, the
imaging domain of dimension of 8 8 8 cm is divided into
32 32 32 voxels so the total number of complex unknowns
to be reconstructed is , while the number of
measured data is . Both the diagonal tensor approx-
imation–Born iterative method and the stabilized biconjugate
gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method are used for in-
version. In the second step inversion process, the inverse result
produced by the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative
method is used as an initial solution to speed up convergence.
Fig. 7 shows reconstructed results of the permittivity at
1.74 GHz using the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iter-
ative method and the stabilized biconjugate gradient-distorted
Born iterative method, respectively. The reconstructed images
indicate highly accurate location of the object. The value of
the relative permittivity is substantially higher than 5, perhaps
because of the small size of the object.
Fig. 8 shows the convergence curve of the data error as a
function of the iteration number of the stabilized biconjugate
gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method. The inversion is
Fig. 8. Convergence curve of the data error as a function of the iteration number
of the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method for
one dielectric sphere in water.
Fig. 9. Imaging of two clay balls in water. The two spheres are placed along
y -axis and separated center to center by 2.4 cm. The transmitting antenna is
0
placed on the plane x = 4:1 cm. The receiving antenna scans on the plane
x = 4:1 cm.
terminated at the twentieth iteration step. It is observed that,
due to a good inverse result of the diagonal tensor approxima-
tion–Born iterative method being used as an initial solution (data
error 20%) for inversion, the data error of the inversion using
the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative
method converges quickly to 6% after 20 iterations for the real
measurement data.
B. Microwave Imaging for Two Dielectric Balls
Fig. 9 shows the geometry of the imaging system for two
dielectric spheres (0.5-cm diameter) in water. The dipole
transmitting antenna is placed at three locations on the plane
cm with , , where
and cm, to test the capability to image in a different
experimental setup. The receiving antenna collects multiview
microwave field information by scanning automatically at
105 locations on the opposite side with cm and the
receiving points are exactly the same as in the last example.
The transmitting and receiving dipoles are all -polarized. The
measured data at 1.74 GHz is used for image reconstruction
of an imaging domain of size 8 8 8 cm divided into
32 32 32 voxels. The total number of complex unknowns
to be reconstructed is .
Fig. 10 presents the measured for all combinations of
transmitters for the total and incident fields. The scattered field
can be obtained by subtracting the incident field from
the total field . It is observed that: 1) the difference is very
small between the total field with the objects and incident field
without the objects; 2) the magnitude of the scattered field is
YU et al.: ACTIVE MICROWAVE IMAGING II: 3-D SYSTEM PROTOTYPE AND IMAGE RECONSTRUCTION FROM EXPERIMENTAL DATA 997

Fig. 10. Measured jS j from three transmitters and 105 receivers for two di-
electric spheres in water. (a) Magnitude jS j for the incident and total fields.
(b) Magnitude jS j for the incident and scattered fields.
Fig. 11. Reconstructed permittivity profile for two clay balls in 3-D plots using:
(a) the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative method and (b) the stabi-
lized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method. The 2-D cross
section at x = 0 for the: (c) diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative
method and (d) the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born itera-
tive method.

approximately from 70 to 80 dB, or approximately from 20

to 30 dB lower than the incident field ( 50 dB). This means
that the signal-to-noise ratio (where the signal refers to the total
field) should be better than an average of the ratio of the total
field to the scattered field (say, 25 dB) to image such small
objects. The system has been carefully designed to meet this
requirement.
Fig. 11 shows the 3-D tomographic results in a 3-D view and a
2-D cross section with the diagonal tensor approximation–Born
iterative method and the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-
distorted Born iterative method. The positions and sizes of the
spheres are clearly determined. As expected, Fig. 11(a) and (b)
shows that the resolution in the -direction is slightly lower than
in the other two directions because the scattered field informa-
tion is collected only on the – -plane. The reconstructed con-
ductivity profiles for the two clay balls are presented in Fig. 12
in 3-D view and in a 2-D cross section with the diagonal tensor
approximation–Born iterative method and the stabilized bicon-
Fig. 12. Reconstructed conductivity profile for two clay balls in 3-D plots
jugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method. It is noted using: (a) the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative method and (b) the
that the positions and sizes of the objects can also be determined stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative method. The 2-D
by the reconstructed conductivity profiles. cross section at x = 0 for: (c) the diagonal tensor approximation–Born iterative
method and (d) the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born iterative
Comparison between the experimental scattered field method.
and reconstructed scattered field in Fig. 13 shows excellent
agreement. This example demonstrates the capability of our
3-D imaging system and reconstruction method in the recon- the background, here we show an imaging example for two
struction of multiple small objects from measured data. metallic spheres. The setup is exactly the same as in the pre-
vious experiment in Fig. 9, except that the two metallic spheres
C. Microwave Imaging for Two Metallic Balls are separated center to center by 3.2 cm.
In the above experiments, dielectric spheres with permit- Fig. 14 shows the measured for this imaging example.
tivity value smaller than the background have been imaged. The scattered field is obtained by subtracting the incident
To demonstrate the performance of the system and algorithms field from the total field . It is observed that the dif-
for objects having a higher complex permittivity value than ference between the total field and incident field is substantially
998
Fig. 13. Comparison of measured and reconstructed scattered field
two dielectric spheres.
Fig. 14. Measured jS j from three transmitters and 105 receivers for two di-
electric spheres in water. (a) Magnitude jS j for the incident and total fields.
(b) Magnitude jS j for the incident and scattered fields.
larger than in the previous example of two dielectric spheres; the
magnitude of the scattered field is approximately 20 dB lower
than the incident field.
The reconstructed results for the conductivity are shown in
Fig. 15. The reconstructed images clearly demonstrate that the
two metallic objects can be localized very effectively.
D. Discussion
The above results have shown that the prototype and hy-
brid algorithms can successfully image small objects using
microwave imaging. For simplicity and for the sake of demon-
strating 3-D microwave tomographic imaging, we have used
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008
j S j for
Fig. 15. Conductivity profiles reconstructed from the experimental data for two
metallic spheres in 3-D plot using: (a) the diagonal tensor approximation–Born
iterative method and (b) the stabilized biconjugate gradient FFT-distorted Born
iterative method. The 2-D cross section at x = 0 for the: (c) diagonal tensor ap-
proximation–Born iterative method and (d) the stabilized biconjugate gradient
FFT-distorted Born iterative method.
simple dipole antennas in isolation and in a large water
chamber. No background heterogeneities have been added. We
are currently investigating more realistic imaging environments
with array antennas.
V. CONCLUSION
We have demonstrated a 3-D microwave tomographic
imaging system. An inversion technique that combines the
diagonal tensor approximation, stabilized biconjugate gradient
FFT algorithm, Born iterative method, and distorted Born
iterative method has been applied to nonlinear image recon-
struction in microwave imaging for breast cancer detection. In
this system, two dipole antennas are designed to transmit and
receive electromagnetic waves, reducing the mutual coupling
of antennas and resulting in accurate measurements of scattered
near-field waves. The collected 3-D electromagnetic wave data
in water are processed by a 3-D nonlinear inverse scattering
algorithm to unravel the multiple scattering effects. With the
developed 3-D microwave imaging system prototype, dielectric
objects of 5-mm diameter have been detected and localized
effectively with high resolution, even when the scattered field
intensity is approximately 90 dB, or approximately 30 dB
below the incident field. One remaining challenge is the imaging
of tumors in the presence of skin and highly heterogeneous
structures. Future work includes developing a 3-D microwave
tomographic imaging system designed for a more realistic
heterogeneous environment and for clinical applications.
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Chun Yu (SM’07) received the Ph.D. degree in
electrical engineering from Shanghai University,
Shanghai, China, in 1998.
From 1982 to 1992, he was an RF Design and
Research Engineer with the China Research Institute
of Radiowave Propagation, Xingxiang, China.
From 1997 to 2001, he was a faculty member and
an Associate Professor with the Department of
Communication Engineering, Shanghai University,
Shanghai, China. In March 2001, he joined the Elec-
tromagnetics Laboratory, Department of Electrical
and Computer Engineering, University of Kentucky, initially as a Post-Doctoral
Research Fellow and then as a Research Scientist. Since December 2004, he
has been a Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC. His research interests include
computational electromagnetics, electromagnetic scattering and wave propa-
gation, inverse scattering, microwave and biomedical imaging, and antenna
analysis and design.
1000 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 56, NO. 4, APRIL 2008

Mengqing Yuan, photograph and biography not available at time of publication.
John Stang, photograph and biography not available at time of publication.
Elan Bresslour, photograph and biography not available at time of publication.
Rhett T. George, photograph and biography not available at time of publication.
Gary A. Ybarra (S’86–M’86–SM’06) was born
in Hampton, VA, on May 13, 1960. He received
the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from North
Carolina State University, Raleigh, in 1983, 1986,
and 1992, respectively, all in electrical and computer
engineering.
He is currently a Professor of the Practice and Di-
rector of Undergraduate Studies with the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke Uni-
versity, Durham, NC. His research interests include
radar signal processing and microwave imaging.
Qing Huo Liu (S’88–M’89–SM’94–F’05) received
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in 1989.
From September 1986 to December 1988, he
was a Research Assistant with the Electromagnetics
Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign, and from January 1989 to February 1990,
he was a Post-Doctoral Research Associate. From
1990 to 1995, he was a Research Scientist and
Program Leader with Schlumberger-Doll Research,
Ridgefield, CT. From 1996 to May 1999, he was an
Associate Professor with New Mexico State University. Since June 1999 he
has been with Duke University, Durham, NC, where he is currently a Professor
with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has authored
or coauthored over 350 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings.
He is an Associate Editor for Radio Science. His research interests include
computational electromagnetics and acoustics, inverse problems, geophysical
subsurface sensing, biomedical imaging, electronic packaging, and the simula-
tion of photonic devices and nanodevices.
Dr. Liu is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America. He is a member of
Phi Kappa Phi, Tau Beta Pi. He is a full member of the U.S. National Com-
mittee, URSI Commissions B and F. He is currently an associate editor for
the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING. He was the
recipient of the 1996 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and En-
gineers (PECASE) presented by the White House, the 1996 Early Career Re-
search Award presented by the Environmental Protection Agency, and the 1997
CAREER Award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

William T. Joines (M’61–SM’94–LSM’97–F’08) was born in Granite Falls,

NC. He received the B.S.E.E. degree (with high honors) from North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, in 1959, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from Duke University, Durham, NC, in 1961 and 1964, respectively.
From 1959 to 1966, he was a Member of Technical Staff with Bell Telephone
Laboratories, Winston-Salem, NC, where he was engaged in research and de-
velopment of microwave components and systems for military applications. In
1966, he joined the faculty of Duke University, where he is currently a Professor
of electrical and computer engineering. His research and teaching interests are
in the area of electromagnetic-wave interactions with structures and materials,
mainly at microwave and optical frequencies. He has authored or coauthored
over 100 technical papers on electromagnetic-wave theory and applications. He
holds seven U.S. patents.
Dr. Joines was the recipient of the Scientific and Technical Achievement
Award presented by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1982, 1985, and
1990.

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