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In this paper, the microwave tomography performed using the contrast source inversion method was investigated. A two-dimensional model problem, composed of a cylindrical phantom positioned at the center of the receiving antennas' circular distribution, provided the setup for virtual experiments. Both a homogeneous phantom, with electrical properties that approximate the ones of a dense breast, and several heterogeneous phantoms, with an inclusion whose high electrical properties simulate those of a breast lesion, were considered. The effect of the initial guess on the reconstruction of the homogeneous phantom was assessed for a first investigation. Then, the detectability of the inclusion in the heterogeneous phantom was tested varying its size, position, and electrical properties. Results suggested that a priori information is useful to build a robust initial guess. The inclusion was detectable in the permittivity maps independently of the considered dimension and position, whereas structured noise was predominant in the conductivity maps.
Ronca et al. (Sun,) studied this question.