Microwave tomographic imaging as a sequence of topology optimization problems

Microwave tomography is an imaging technique with unique features for medical applications. This article presents a reconstruction procedure using a sequence of problems solved by topology optimization techniques. Each problem in this sequence is constructed using the solution of the previous one in combination with available a priori information about the unknown permittivities. Numerical examples illustrate the reconstruction procedure for the case when the sizes of the objects are of the same order as the wavelength. A good estimate of the permittivities is obtained using a priori information that the unknown permittivities vary within a given box and a bound on how lossy the unknown objects are.