Prototype trials are now under way at Newcastle Hospitals.
Its Northern Medical Physics and Clinical Engineering team is leading on the device regulation, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research HealthTech Research Centre in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation is also involved.
Prof Kris Thielemans, professor in medical imagine physics at UCL, said the collaboration between teams had “made excellent progress”, adding he believed the technology had “considerable potential” for use beyond breast imaging.
The project has received £2.5m from Innovate UK.
It will enter clinical trials once the current phase of prototype testing is completed.
Breast Cancer Now’s Sally Kum said the charity “wholeheartedly” supported the “ongoing research into breast imaging technologies that could improve cancer detection in dense breasts”.
Ms Kum said if the government’s UK National Screening Committee found that evidence supported a specific approach to measuring breast density and offering alternative imaging for screening women with dense breasts, “we’ll push for those changes to be rolled out as quickly as possible across the UK”.
She added the charity still encouraged eligible women to attend mammogram screening when invited.
The Department for Health and Social Care said it was set to publish a plan to “fight cancer on all fronts”, including improving screening and diagnosis.
A spokesperson said: “Research is being conducted into the use of additional tests for women with dense breasts, as part of the NHS breast screening programme. The UK National Screening Committee is reviewing this evidence as it becomes available.”