Effects of Microwave Pulse Width on the Spatial Resolution of Microwave-Induced Thermoacoustic Imaging

We study the effect of microwave pulse width on the spatial resolution of microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging for early breast cancer detection. The microwave-induced thermoacoustic effect of the breast tumor under the irradiation of microwave pulse with different duration is simulated. The imaging results reconstructed by employing confocal imaging algorithm verify that the microwave pulse width indeed has an effect on the spatial resolution of microwave-induced thermoacoustics, and the shorter the microwave pulse width the better the spatial resolution. For a 14 mm times 14 mm detection aperture, when the duration of microwave pulse is 0.2 mus, the spatial resolution in 1 mm can be achieved.