Time Reversal Microwave Imaging of Realistic Numerical Head Phantom for Bone Flap Healing Follow-up

This paper presents the feasibility of using a microwave imaging system for monitoring bone mineralization progress overtime after craniotomy surgery. Any variation in the composition of the bone flap can be monitored as a variation in the intensity of the image. A simulation is conducted on a head structure derived from a numerical head phantom based on anatomically realistic MRI-derived FDTD models using commercial CST 2019 software. For simulation, a defect is provided in the skull layer surrounded by a 9-elements antenna. Applying Space-Frequency Time Reversal (TR) method, the image of defect is constructed for different permittivity of the defect ranging from 16 to 36. Results show that the image intensity at the defect location will decrease as the permittivity of the defect decreases.