Finite-element contrast source inversion method for microwave imaging. (English) Zbl 1202.94094

Zakaria, Amer; Gilmore, Colin; LoVetri, Joe

Inverse Probl. 26, No. 11, Article ID 115010, 21 p. (2010).

Summary: With respect to the microwave imaging of the dielectric properties in an imaging region, the full derivation of a new inversion algorithm based on the contrast source inversion (CSI) algorithm and a finite-element method (FEM) discretization of the Helmholtz differential operator formulation for the scattered electromagnetic field is presented. The unknown dielectric properties are represented as nodal values on a two-dimensional (2D) arbitrary triangular mesh using linear basis functions. The use of FEM to represent the Helmholtz operator allows for the flexibility of having an inhomogeneous background medium, as well as the ability to accurately model any boundary shape or type: both conducting and absorbing. The resulting sparse and symmetric FEM matrix equation can be solved efficiently, and it is shown how its solution can be used to calculate the gradient operators required in the conjugate-gradient CSI update without storing the inverse of the FEM matrix. The inversion algorithm is applied to conductive-enclosures of various shapes and unbounded-region microwave tomography configurations where the 2D transverse magnetic (TM) approximation can be applied.

MSC:

94A08	Image processing (compression, reconstruction, etc.) in information and communication theory
78M10	Finite element, Galerkin and related methods applied to problems in optics and electromagnetic theory