As the electrical properties of biological tissues are highly sensitive to their physiological and pathological status, the noninvasive imaging method of electrical properties also has drawn much attention. Thermo-acoustic tomography with electric excitation (TATE) is a typical noninvasive method of electrical properties for biological tissues. To the best of our knowledge, however, there is no 3D simulation model of TATE. In this paper, a new mathematical model is built, and the 3D TATE equations have been deduced. The performance of TATE has been studied by a series of 3D simulation models, including the tumors with different background tissues, different sizes, and different conductivities. In the simulation results, the Joule heat distribution of tumors has been imaged clearly. In addition, a verification experiment has validated the mathematical model and simulation results. The simulation and experiment results also indicate that the mathematical model can describe TATE well and TATE has the potential to image the tumors with high contrast and high resolution. Published by AIP Publishing.
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