TECHNOLOGY
Microwave Breast Imaging is based on the contrast in dielectric properties between cancerous breast tissue (high water content) and healthy breast tissue (low water content) in the microwave frequency spectrum.
Wavelia illuminates the breast using non-ionizing, low-power electro-magnetic waves in the frequency range [0.5-4] GHz and measures the fields scattered inside the breast in order to detect the presence of dielectrically contrasted tissues.
With the patient lying in prone position, each antenna illuminates the imaging domain (i.e. coronal section of the breast) individually, while the remaining antennas receive the low-power, non-ionizing electromagnetic waves scattered at various angles around the circle, in a multistatic radar system configuration.
The probe array moves vertically below the examination table and illuminates the breast at regular intervals, capturing the dielectric contrast for the entirety of the breast. Coronal sections of the breast, of a given thickness of some millimeters are generated using the MWBI data at each vertical scan position of the probe array. Partially overlapping consecutive coronal breast sections, generated per azimuthal sector of illumination (partial images) based on multi-static radar detection technology (TR-MUSIC imaging algorithm), are integrated to form the 3D MWBI image.
The technical principles of this technology and the employed algorithms have been previously detailed in On-Site Validation of a Microwave Breast Imaging System, before First Patient Study and Super-resolution radar imaging for breast cancer detection with microwaves: the integrated information selection criteria.
