Numerical and experimental assessments of focused microwave thermotherapy system at 925 MHz

This work investigated three-dimensional (3D) focused microwave thermotherapy (FMT) at 925 MHz for a human tissue mimicking phantom using the time reversal (TR) principle for musculoskeletal disorders. We verified the proposed TR algorithm by evaluating the possibility of 3D beam focusing through simulations and experiments. The simulation, along with the electromagnetic and thermal analyses of the human tissue mimicking phantom model, was conducted by employing the Sim4Life commercial tool. Experimental validation was conducted on the developed FMT system using a fabricated human tissue mimicking phantom. A truncated threshold method was proposed to reduce the unwanted hot spots in a normal tissue region, wherein a beam was appropriately focused on a target position. The validation results of the simulation and experiments obtained by utilizing the proposed TR algorithm were shown to be acceptable. Effective beam focusing at the desired position of the phantom could be achieved.