Dielectric Characterization of Material for 3D-printed Breast Phantoms up to 50 GHz: Preliminary Experimental Results

Breast cancer is the most common disease among women in the word. However, despite the actual increase in the incidence rate, the death rate is decreasing, and this is mainly due to the improvement in screening techniques. Nowadays, one of the most common screening method is the X-ray mammography. However, its well-known limitations (woman exposition to ionizing radiations and painful compression) are requiring new imaging methods. In the last years, microwave imaging techniques have been proposed as a promising alternative. Moreover, systems adopting higher frequencies, in the mm-wave range, have been also proposed to augment the achievable spatial resolution. A key point for the development of these systems is the availability of suitable breast phantoms, which are fundamental to test the prototypes. This paper presents the preliminary results related to the dielectric characterization of materials suitable for the realization of a 3D-printing breast phantom, aimed to mime the tumorous tissues up to 50 GHz.