Head phantom for testing microwave systems for head imaging

The fabrication of a human head phantom for the use in microwave systems designed for head imaging is presented. Since most of the ongoing research activities on microwave imaging of human head use the band from 1 GHz to 4 GHz, the fabricated phantom is designed to emulate the electrical properties of human brain tissues across that band. A material that has electrical properties equal to those of the soft human brain tissues is manufactured using simple substances. A fabricated material that resembles the shape of human skull is used to contain the developed soft tissues. The measured properties of the fabricated phantom using a suitable dielectric probe are in good agreement with the properties of the real head tissues.