Simulation Results of 2.45 GHz Coaxial Antenna with a Ring Slot for Microwave Ablation of a Cancer

Abstract

Nowadays cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Microwave ablation, as minimally invasive procedure, plays an increasingly important role in the treatment of cancer. In this thermal therapy, microwave energy delivery to a cancer tissue is enabled by electric fields radiated by interstitial antenna operating at microwave frequency. In this study, microwave ablation is numerically evaluated in the context of a liver cancer treatment using 2.45 GHz coaxial antenna with a ring slot. In order to design this antenna prototype and analyze its performance, simulations based on finite element method were done with the COMSOL Multiphysics software. In silico ablation experiments with the proposed antenna were performed using 10 W, 30 W and 50 W input microwave powers and different ablation times. Numerical results showed that the proposed ablation antenna has the ability to achieve a thermal lesion with a preferably spherical shape and clinically relevant volume with a maximum diameter of 3.5 cm using 30 W input microwave power during 10 minutes.