Phase compensation technique for effective heat focusing in microwave hyperthermia systems

In this paper, effective electromagnetic (EM) focusing achieved with a phase compensation technique for microwave hyperthermia systems is proposed. To treat tumor cells positioned deep inside a human female breast, EM energy must be properly focused on the target area. A circular antenna array for microwave hyperthermia allows EM energy to concentrate on a specific target inside the breast tumor. Depending on the cancerous cell conditions in the breast, the input phases of each antenna are calculated for single and multiple tumor cell locations. In the case of multifocal breast cancer, sub-array beam focusing via the phase compensation technique is presented to enhance the ability of EM energy to concentrate on multiple targets while minimizing damage to normal cells. To demonstrate the thermal treatment effects on single and multiple tumor locations, the accumulation of the specific absorption rate (SAR) parameter and temperature changes were verified using both simulated and experimental results.