Field and contrast eigenfunction expansions and their application to microwave imaging algorithms

Microwave imaging (MWI) is an imaging modality that seeks a quantitative reconstruction of the permittivity and conductivity of an object-of-interest (OI) from data collected via electromagnetic interrogation. MWI has shown potential in biomedical applications as it uses non-ionizing, low-power radiation. For biomedical imaging a matching fluid is commonly used to ensure that sufficient energy couples to biological OIs while reducing reflections from the interface between the matching fluid and the external environment. Containing the matching fluid inside a metallic chamber reduces modeling error as the fluid/metal interface is well approximated by a perfect electric conductor (PEC).