Effects of Cancellous Bone Dielectric Variability on Microwaves Detection Feasibility. A Simulation Study

Abstract

The biological variability and quality of trabecular bone yield variability of its dielectric properties (permittivity and conductivity). The feasibility of detecting such differences was studied in a tomographic array of 16 monopole antennas using z-polarized electromagnetic waves (OEM) at a frequency of 1.3 GHz. Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) simulations were performed accounting for the documented dielectric variability of cancellous bone. A sensitivity analysis method was proposed in order to identify the parameters that most affect the detection