During the last decades, microwave imaging has attracted remarkable attention for biomedical applications mainly due to the significant contrast between
the dielectric properties of normal and abnormal tissues. Compared to the other conventional imaging modalities, such as X–ray mammography, microwave imaging
is an attractive approach in several aspects, namely its non–ionizing nature, low cost, and compactness of the equipment associated with its hardware system.
This is the reason why, at the present time, there are multiple research teams around the world working on bio-medical applications of microwave imaging.
This is evidenced by the emergence of several COST and particularly, MiMed. The latter gave rise to the share of the GeePs-L2S breast phantom [1], with more than 10 laboratories (please see the map on the slider) and several projects; among them, the European
project EMERALD (ElectroMagnetic imaging for a novel genERation of medicAL Devices). EMERALD is a multidisciplinary project involving 27 partners
across the Europe. It offered a unique opportunity for interactions between clinicians, researchers and instrumentation
developers.
Newly designed devices require multiple tests under a controlled environment before moving to human clinical test.
SUPELEC RECIPES (Standard Uwb Phantom ELECtromagnetic RECIPES) is mainly concerned with the development and realization of the biological phantoms dedicated to test the microwave imaging devices and particularly is well suited to a remote developement.
To be more specific, the website allows to produce liquid mixtures mimicking any type of biological tissue referenced
in the Gabriel database [2], at least over a range of frequencies [1 to 6 GHz]. The database has been extended thanks to data from
literature (publications). Moreover, images of the printed phantoms are available here. You can make a request
via the contact page to obtain the .stl files used for electromagnetic simulations or production of phantoms.
Used in the framework on the EMERALD project, the manufacturing process has to be easily reproducible by an electrical engineer in a non-specific environment (no hood), and without drastic precautions. Following our initial works [14], the phantoms such as the breast [1], head [15] and thorax [16] are composed of 3D printed cavities filled up with liquid binary mixtures of Triton X-100 (TX-100, a non-ionic surfactant) and salted water. Those liquid mixtures are adjustable in time therefore their use in the manufacturing process, provide stable phantoms over time. Moreover, the TritonX's and salt's concentrations are given by a Gauss-Newton algorithm based on a binary law (Böttcher [1] or Kraszewski [15]). The algorithm uses as reference, values provided from the database.
If you use SUPELEC RECIPES, please mention it in your publications by including the website link and the following paper :
N. Joachimowicz, B. Duchêne, C. Conessa and O. Meyer, “Anthropomorphic breast and head phantoms for microwave imaging". Diagnostics, 8, 4, p. 85, DOI: 10.3390/ diagnostics 8040085.