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SUMMARY
Modeling behavior of broadband (301000 MHz) frequency modulated near infrared photons through a
multilayer phantom is of interest to optical bio-imaging research. Photon dynamics in phantom are predicted
using three-dimension (3D) finite element numerical simulation and are related to the measured insertion loss
and phase for a given human head geometry in this paper based on three layers of phantom each with distinct
optical parameter properties. Simulation and experimental results are achieved for single, two, and three
layers solid phantoms using COMSOL (COMSOL AB, Tegnrgatan 23, SE-111 40, Stockholm, Sweden)
(for FEM) simulation and custom-designed broadband free space optical transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx)
modules that are developed for photon migration at wavelengths of 680, 795, and 850 nm. Standard error
is used to compute error between two-dimension and p 3D FE modeling along with experimental results by
fitting experimental data to the functional form of a f reque ncy C b. Error results are shown at narrow-
band and broadband frequency modulation. Confidence in numerical modeling of the photonic behavior
using 3D FEM for human head has been established here by comparing the reflection modes experimental
results with the predictions made by COMSOL for known commercial solid brain phantoms. Copyright
2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
KEY WORDS: fNIR; TBI; FEM; DE; COMSOL; optical transmitter Tx; optical receiver Rx; tri-
wavelength; CW; TD; FD; PDW; VCSEL; IL; IP
1. INTRODUCTION
The future of non-invasive medical imaging depends on many aspects such as accurate diagnosis,
cost, mobility , and transportability. Imaging using near infrared (NIR) photons reveals accurate
assessments of functionality, which can be achieved by accurate extraction of optical parameters
[1, 2]. NIR imaging uses the electromagnetic spectrum of the NIR (600nm2500 nm) as a base of
spectroscopic modality [3]. The general form of this spectroscopy depends on photons that travels
through biological media and interact with different particles of human cells and organs. These pho-
tons will either be absorbed or scattered while traveling in the most favorable path through the media
[4]. Accurate diagnosis will depend on knowing the amount of photons entering the media and the
amount leaving the media, and amount of phase shift that occurs due to multi-scattering [5, 6].
Photon behavior in biological high-scattering media is of great interest to researches in the field
of bio-optics imaging, where the relationship between NIR photons and biological media reveals
information of absorption or scattering that is related to hemodynamic process [7]. Modeling the
*Correspondence to: A.S. Daryoush, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Drexel University,
Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A.
E-mail: daryoush@coe.drexel.edu
Figure 1. Untethered frequency modulated photon migration in brain using helmet mounted structure;
a) block diagram; b) differential detection; and c) multi optical Tx and Rx mounted on human head.
hemodynamic process through either absorption or scattering of photons in the biological media
using either analytical or numerical methods helps in accurate medical diagnosis. In previous publi-
cation [1, 8], we have introduced the standard diffusion equation (DE) as an analytical modeling tool
to model the frequency modulated photons in homogenous highly scattering media and extend the
solution through FEM for two-dimension (2D) finite element modeling. One of the main purposes of
this paper is to accurately model the modulated photon behavior when traveling in multilayer media
and inhomogeneous complexity. Confidence in the FEM modeling of the homogenous media has
been established [8] by comparing the analytical DE to the 2D FEM model simulation along with
experimental result in homogenous phantoms. More complex biological media such as the human
head is considered important inhomogeneous multilayers that contain one of the most important
organs in the human body, the brain. The human brain is considered the control element of all
physiological activities, and it happens to be a very fragile and sensitive organ when compared to
other organs, and its functionality depends on knowing the amount of oxygenated and deoxygenated
blood flows circulating in order to maintain normal neuro-activities [7, 9].
This paper will examine the modulated photon traveling in multilayer inhomogeneous brain phan-
tom that resembles the human head. A conceptual representation of human head and propagation
of diffused density waves are depicted in Figure 1(c), where optical transmitter (Tx) and receivers
(Rx) are strategically located on head. This study is part of early detection of traumatic brain injury
using a helmet mounted functional NIR (fNIR) device, as shown in Figure 1(a). Both wireless con-
nectivity and differential detection of insertion loss (IL) and phase through brain are conducted
for a helmet mounted broadband radio frequency (RF) electronics. A three-dimension (3D) FEM
modeling is key in a high spatial resolution modeling the modulated photon migration through the
inhomogeneous human head. Therefore, this paper will begin with demonstrating confidence in
accuracy of the FEM-based modeling by identifying practical mesh sizes as the 2D FEM modeling
is being extended to 3D. In particular, accuracy of optical parameter extraction is quantified at the
shortest and the most challenging wavelength of 680 nm. Knowing a practical mesh size and the
achieved FEM modeling accuracy, then we present accuracy of the two and three layers of phantom
stacked to resemble human head by making comparison between the experimental measurement
and numerical modeling results at three different wavelengths of 680, 795, and 850 nm. Moreover,
the accuracy of 3D modeling to measurements results are compared over various broadband fre-
quency bandwidths. These results will set understanding of how the broadband measurements could
be applied for optical parameter extraction of an inhomogeneous brain medium without resorting to
analytically challenging methods [10].
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
3D FE NUMERICAL MODELING AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION 355
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
356 E. SULTAN ET AL.
are still under investigation [14]. A variety of approximation, such as Monte Carlo simulation of
the photon behavior, has been extended to two layer diffusion, but it would require high amount of
computational power [15]. The analytical model of photon transport in tissue using FEM has been
first introduced by Arridge et al. in 1993 [16] to demonstrate the ability of FEM to model the pho-
ton density inside an object with photon flux along the geometric boundaries. The FEM modeling
manifestation is based on the assumption that photon transport is the diffusion approximation to a
radiative transfer equation. The advantage of the FEM modeling is its high accuracy for a practical
convergence speed than any other numerical modeling. Other researchers have applied FEM to con-
struct methods of imaging the photon distribution and extract the optical parameters of bio-media.
Commercial multiphysics-based FEM software, such as COMSOL, is used in this paper as a robust
numerical tool to numerically predict the photon behavior in a highly scattering media, as we have
demonstrated in 2D modeling [8]. The Helmholtz equation is used for FEM numerical analysis
[16, 17] in COMSOL as
where ;.r, t / is the photon flux, D D 1 0 , and in a frequency modulated NIR system S.r, t / D
! " 3!!s
SO 1 C me j!t where m is amplitude modulation index at time harmonic modulation frequency of
!. The main objective of this paper is to validate the use of a commercially available tool (COMSOL)
in 3D to help the process of solving the inverse problem and to extract optical parameters of the
homogenous and inhomogeneous media, such as absorption and reduced scattering coefficients for
broadband frequency modulated photons (from 30 to 1000 MHz).
Accuracy of FEM simulation results depends on resolution of mesh structures in comparison
to wavelength of light and modulating RF frequencies and any associated points in space, where
DPDW solution is to be computed using partial difference equation of Helmholtz equation. Higher
resolution meshing structure is required to accurately simulate the photon dynamics, which natu-
rally results in longer computation times or even cause computation systems to crash; therefore, a
compromise in accuracy and mesh resolution has to be made in order to find the optimal simulated
environment. It is our experience that having high resolution around optical source and receiver
would predict an accurate result for the specific amplitude and phase change while meeting a typ-
ical computation time of 4 s for single 2D simulation and 26 s for single 3D simulation using an
Intel Core i3 processor PC with a reasonable error of less than 5%a mesh element sizes of 80 and
1000 nm are considered in regions around optical Tx and Rx and everywhere else, respectively. Dif-
ferent mesh topologies have been reviewed at the wavelength of 680 nm for high meshing of 80 nm
selection around the boundaries between layers and the result shown to be the same as if selecting
the same meshing around only the Tx and Rx. The difference between these two topologies is the
computational time, where applying 80 nm around boundaries takes 94.6 s for single simulation.
These meshing element sizes are also recommended when inhomogeneous phantoms resembling
head tissue is considered [18]. In COMSOL, the boundary condition is set either through Dirich-
let or Neumann boundary conditions, where they are set to express the fluence rate, u, at desired
boundaries. Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are chosen appropriately for air-dielectric
(or dielectricdielectric) and radiation condition in region surrounding phantom. The mathematical
representation is expressed as
where h, r, q, and g are the boundary coefficients for the phantom modeling. For the diffused pho-
ton flux, h D 1 and r D 0. For the matching boundary of air dielectric and dielectric and dielectric
interfaces q D 0 and g D 0. It is important to mention that extrapolated boundary conditions take
the phantom-air boundary into account as a radiation boundary by setting the fluence rate to zero
using Eq. 3 without any impact on error achieved.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
3D FE NUMERICAL MODELING AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION 357
Figure 3. Optical system set up showing optical transmitter and receiver measuring insertion loss and
insertion phase for three stacked layers of phantoms.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
358 E. SULTAN ET AL.
Figure 4. Insertion loss COMSOL simulation for a) two-dimension (2D) scalp and skull, b) three-dimension
(3D) scalp and skull, c) 2D reflection mode cortex, d) 3D reflection mode cortex, e) 2D semi-transmission
mode, and f) 3D semi-transmission mode.
Figure 5. Insertion phase COMSOL simulation for a) two-dimension (2D) scalp and skull, b) three-dimension
(3D) scalp and skull, c) 2D reflection mode cortex, d) 3D reflection mode cortex, e) 2D semi-transmission
mode, and f) 3D semi-transmission mode.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
3D FE NUMERICAL MODELING AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION 359
frequency modulated photon traveling through multilayer inhomogeneous media. Three different
modes of photon traveling are used to make the transition between 2D and 3D FEM modeling;
these three modes of transmission, semi-transmission, and reflection can been used separately to
extract the optical parameters of the phantoms [1, 8] using COMSOL. A broadband simulation of
photon flux is computed for both cases of 2D and 3D, and comparison is made to the experimental
results to quantify optical parameter extraction accuracies. Photon flux predictions for transmission
mode is applied for scalp and skull phantom, while semi-reflection and reflection mode is applied
to cortex phantom as shown in Figures 4 and 5. In the case of transmission and reflection mode,
the transmitter is located at the center of the phantom, while for the semi-transmission mode, the
optical Tx is located 1 cm away from the edge of the phantom. Location of the optical Rx can be
chosen as desired on various positions of phantom, and for accurate optical parameter extraction
without being hampered by optical Tx and Rx interface errors, two locations are considered for the
differential detection procedures established earlier [1, 8]. The concept of the homogenous model-
ing depends on identifying an extrapolated boundary region layer and choosing an isotropic point
of source limited to the media in sense of space and frequency. The source location is set to be very
close to the extrapolated region with certain depth of one transport mean free path ltr beneath the
surface of the phantom [18]. Comparison of the experimental results with the FEM numerical result
is shown in Figure 6 for broadband frequency modulation.
These result in Figure 6 shows that IL between low frequency to high frequency for transmission
mode in scalp is about 6 dB and in skull is about 5 dB, while for reflection mode of cortex is about
35 dB and for semi-transmission mode of cortex is about 16 dB. IP between low frequency and
Figure 6. Broadband frequency modulation measurements and simulation at 680 nm for a) insertion loss
(IL) scalp and skull, b) insertion phase (IP) scalp and skull, c) IL reflection mode cortex, d) IP reflection
mode cortex, e) IL semi-transmission mode, and f) IP semi-transmission mode.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
360 E. SULTAN ET AL.
Table II. Error percentage between FEM using COMSOL and analytical diffusion equation using MATLAB
(MathWorks, 3 Apple Hill Drive, Natick, MA 01760-2098, United States).
Scalp Skull Cortex Cortex
transmission Error % transmission Error % semi-trans Error % reflection Error %
IL IP IL IP IL IP IL IP
301000 MHz 2.32 1.92 2.55 2.12 2.62 2.87 2.8 2.51
30300 MHz 2.13 1.86 2.49 2.05 2.57 2.79 2.67 2.38
100500 MHz 3.18 2.86 3.22 2.92 3.15 3.54 3.47 3.28
5001000 MHz 3.56 3.04 3.16 3.44 3.57 3.68 3.76 3.42
30500 MHz 2.83 2.78 2.82 2.65 3.24 3.18 3.28 3.15
1001000 MHz 2.94 2.17 2.83 2.42 2.98 3.05 3.11 2.78
IL, insertion loss; IP, insertion phase.
Table III. Error percentage between two-dimension FEM and three-dimension FEM using COMSOL .
Scalp Skull Cortex Cortex
transmission Error % transmission Error % semi-trans Error % reflection Error %
IL IP IL IP IL IP IL IP
301000 MHz 1.32 1.12 1.55 1.18 1.76 1.21 1.62 1.19
30300 MHz 1.58 1.24 1.63 1.31 1.85 1.44 1.75 1.35
100500 MHz 1.65 1.37 1.61 1.41 1.84 1.35 1.81 1.34
5001000 MHz 1.77 1.42 1.72 1.48 1.95 1.52 1.86 1.38
30500 MHz 1.64 1.32 1.75 1.35 1.87 1.42 1.76 1.34
1001000 MHz 1.51 1.24 1.56 1.23 1.81 1.3 1.71 1.22
IL, insertion loss; IP, insertion phase.
Figure 7. Insertion loss COMSOL simulation for two layer of scalp/cortex or skull/cortex and three layers of
scalp/skull/cortex.
high frequency for transmission mode in scalp is about 5 and in skull is about 3 , while for reflec-
tion mode of cortex is about 14 and for semi-transmission mode of cortex is about 12 . Accuracy
through computing error between these result is shown in Tables II and III and is discussed in the
last section of this paper.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
3D FE NUMERICAL MODELING AND ITS EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION 361
Figure 8. Insertion phase COMSOL simulation for two layer of scalp/cortex or skull/cortex and three layers
of scalp/skull/cortex.
Figure 9. Broadband frequency modulation measurements and simulation for two and three layers of phan-
tom of a) 680 nm insertion loss (IL) , b) 680 nm insertion phase (IP), c) 795 nm IL, d) 795 nm IP, e) 850 nm
IL, and f) 850 nm IP.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
362 E. SULTAN ET AL.
The confidence in 3D FE modeling depends first on the accuracy between the analytical DE and the
numerical simulated result performed by COMSOL. The transition between 2D and 3D layers is per-
formed by identifying the error between these dimensions. The error between 2D and 3D modeling
analysis was based on calculating the standard error between the two broadband plots of IL and IP
using narrowband and broadband frequencies as shown in Tables II and III. The error between the
2D and 3D FE numerical analysis is no more than 2%, which means the difference between the two-
dimensional models is insignificant. The next analysis deals with the two and three layers modeling
and experimental results. Measurements of broadband frequency modulation along with the numer-
ical simulation are consistent as shown in Figure 9, and it renders that two layers of scalp/cortex and
skull/cortex have poor sensitivities as values of IL and IP at low frequencies are very close to one
another, but at high frequencies, it shows gradual deviation emerging, which is expected because
the shallow layers have different optical properties.
The higher the optical properties of the top layer phantom are, the higher IL and IP are expected
at higher frequencies. This behavior is shown when at three wavelengths, the IL and IP are higher at
high frequencies for the scalp/cortex than the skull/cortex. The important part of this modeling and
experimental result is the understanding of the modulated photon behavior in both two and three
layers media in order to set the stage for inverse problem solving for medical applications. It is
observed that at two layers of scalp/cortex and skull/cortex, the slope of the curve of IL and IP at
low frequencies is very close, while at higher frequencies, it changes, and slope change could be
used as a point of identification for high optical activity.
The last analysis is done to compute the error between the experimental raw data and 3D COM -
SOL FEM simulation at different band of frequencies. This analysis is performed by curve fitting
p
the experimental data to a f reque ncy C b and then computing the standard error between curve
fitted and 3D COMSOL simulation result as shown in Table IV. The transition between analytical
DE and 2D finite element shows an error less than 4%, and error between 2D FEM to 3D FEM
applied to homogenous media shows to be insignificant with less than 2%. The last error com-
puted between experimental curve fitted data of two and three multilayers and 3D FEM shows to
be less than 5%. This paper addressed two important aspects in the process of 3D modeling of
FD functional imaging applied to human head. One is the transition between 2D and 3D FEM for
frequency modulation photon traveling in homogenous media and two modeling the modulated pho-
ton behavior in inhomogeneous human head media using 3D FEM numerical method. These two
important analyses are used to build up confidence in 3D numerical modeling and set the stage
for future modeling the modulated photon behavior in inhomogeneous layers addressing different
medical cases.
Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm
Table IV. Error percentage between 3D FEM and curve fitted experimental data.
Cortex phantom Error % Two layer scalp/cortex Error % Two layer skull/cortex Error % Three layer scalp/skull/cortex Error %
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Copyright 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Numer. Meth. Biomed. Engng. 2014; 30:353364
DOI: 10.1002/cnm