We present a first prototype of a wideband microwave tomography system with potential application to medical imaging. The system relies on a compact and robust printed monopole antenna which can operate in the 1.0⁻3.0 GHz range when fully immersed in commonly used coupling liquids, such as glycerine⁻water solutions. By simulating the proposed imaging setup in CST Microwave Studio, we study the signal transmission levels and array sensitivity for different target and coupling liquid media. We then present the experimental prototype design and data acquisition process, and show good agreement between experimentally measured data and results from the CST simulations. We assess imaging performance by applying our previously proposed two-dimensional (2-D) DBIM TwIST-algorithm to both simulated and experimental datasets, and demonstrate that the system can reconstruct simple cylindrical targets at multiple frequencies.
Keywords: DBIM; array; medical imaging; microwave tomography; printed monopole antenna; wideband.