A quick accurate method for measuring the microwave dielectric properties of small tissue samples.

A resonant cavity perturbation technique has been developed which provides a quick, simple and accurate method of measuring the microwave dielectric properties of small, easily prepared samples of tissues, tissue-simulating materials and biological fluids. The method gives dielectric properties averaged over the sample volume. The measurement accuracy with the apparatus used is +/- 2.2% for relative permittivity and +/- 3.5% for the loss factor for most tissue and biological material samples. With appropriate basic microwave equipment the method can be applied over the 1.5-6 GHz range of frequencies of interest for active and radiometric tissue microwave imaging.