Experimental performances of antennas for a proposed microwave tomography system using the time-domain approach

This paper presents a detailed comparison of the results of a 3D FDTD numerical model and experimental measurements of the antenna response of a microwave tomography system. The FDTD algorithm uses the thin-wire approximation to model the antenna structure and a resistive voltage source is used to excite the signal. The algorithm was validated against experimental data obtained for an array of monopole antennas arranged in a circular grid. There is close agreement between the published and measured data. The discrepancies between the calculated and the measured data may be due to the grid coarseness errors and, this level can further be quantified by grid resolutions rather than the refinement in the FDTD model. These promising findings indicate that the 3D FDTD algorithm can be used to provide a reliable forward model for iterative image reconstruction.