Qualitative microwave imaging methods provide a fast and accurate reconstruction of the shapes of the targets from scattered electric field measurements. In this paper, a qualitative imaging method, the singular sources method (SSM), is analyzed for two-dimensional transverse magnetic electromagnetic (2D-TM EM) inverse scattering scenarios. The contribution of the paper can be briefly summarized as: (i) The SSM was previously proposed for the far-field scenario, here we extend the SSM in the near field - inhomogeneous background setup. While making the extension each step (which includes an integral equation) is explained by exploiting the linearity and reciprocity principles to give physical insights. (ii) The relation between the electrical parameters of the scatterers and the indicator of SSM is derived. (iii) To analyze the performance of SSM in real-world problems, the proposed method is tested for monitoring hyperthermia treatment problems with a realistic breast model. Obtained results show that the SSM can handle realistic breast phantoms for monitoring hyperthermia problems.
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