  In the majority of applications of electrical resistance tomography (ERT) the
estimation problem consists of either the estimation of spatial conductivity
change over an existing background or the estimation of spatial distribution of
conductivity of the entire target, including the background. In some instances
however, it is possible to design the background conductivity; an example of
such application is the design of ERT-based sensors where the background
conductivity can be engineered. In such applications the natural question is
whether the background conductivity can be engineered in such a way to increase
the distinguishability and further reconstructability of the sensor. The
present paper, uses topology optimization to design the background conductivity
to achieve optimal distinguishability. Then, ERT reconstructions suggest the
enhancements of reconstructability using topology optimized sensor.

Applied Physics;Optimization and Control