SAR distributions, for 1-W peak input microwave power and zero input reflection, in the breast model containing a Group I tissue target at various frequencies are plotted in Fig. 4. They are depicted on three cut planes(x–y on top,x–z in middle,and y–z at bottom) centered at the spherical target. The following observations can be made. First, a circular region occupied by the target distinctly appears in the x–y plane for all frequencies. Second, it is apparent that EM fields sustain remarkable attenuation when traveling (approximately as a spherical wave) in the lossy breast model,especially for higher frequencies.Third, the maximum SAR, at the bottom face of the gel slab for all the displayed frequencies,increases with frequency.This is because the electric field intensity is higher in smaller waveguide and the conductivity increases with frequency. Fourth, SAR in the x–y cut planes show polarization dependence (fields are polarized in the y-direction), which is somewhat similar to the results reported in[28].But since the spherical target we used is small,no obvious splitting effect is seen in the SAR and thermoacoustic images that will be obtained in Section III-D. Finally, contrast of the SAR strength inside the target and in its vicinity reveals an interesting phenomenon. The former is higher than the latter at 2.8 GHz, comparable with the latter at 6 GHz and lower than the latter at 9 and 12 GHz. Since the magnitudes of the electric field (plots are not shown) inside and near the target do not have considerable difference based on the simulation results, the physical reason of such behavior is the conductivity. To be specific,conductivity of the Group I tissue target is higher than, comparable with and lower than that of water in the three different situations, according to Fig. 3(b).