Sensitivity enhancement of ultrasound imaging based on acoustic metamaterial

Breast cancer is the most common and increasing cancer in the world. It is important for early diagnosis to aid in fast and effective treatment. Ultrasound imaging represents the supplement mammography in the early detection of occult breast cancer, but its sensitivity and contrast is very low. In this paper, an ultrasound imaging method is developed to detect the breast tumor by attaching a single negative metamaterial layer to detection area. The performance of the proposed method is confirmed by a full-wave simulation. It is found that the sensitivity of the proposed method is higher than that of the conventional ultrasound imaging method, and the sensitivity of the ultrasound imaging can be greatly improved by increasing the thickness of the single negative metamaterial layer adhere to detection zone. Moreover, the optimum thickness of the single negative metamaterial layer is 9 mm.