Accuracy of a Multiprobe Conformal Sensor in Estimating the Dielectric Constant in Deep Biological Tissues

A theoretical analysis is presented on the accuracy of a novel method to extract the dielectric constant of deep tissues. The method exploits the variations of the electric fields on the surface of a multilayer dielectric scattering model and their dependence on dielectric properties of the deep tissues. The dielectric constant at a specific depth is expressed as a linear combination of the surface electric field samples. Critical parameters that affect the accuracy are determined through a numerical study, and basic guidelines for sensor design optimization are provided, using an emulation of a human torso. It is concluded that accuracies with errors <3% can be achieved, demonstrating the efficacy of the method and proposed representation.