Microwaves and Ultrasound for Image-Guided Therapy

The purpose of this project was to construct a prototype platform that integrates focused microwave therapy and thermoacoustic imaging systems to deliver thermal therapy to a tissue while mapping its temperature in real time. Focused delivery of microwave thermal energy to a region of tissue can potentially be used as a noninvasive treatment for tumor reduction, but the heating needs to be constantly monitored to ensure that proper temperatures for tumor ablation are reached while the surrounding healthy tissue is not damaged. Current clinical methods for this monitoring are expensive and time consuming. This project will serve as a proof of concept for an integrated FMT-TI system to selectively heat and safely monitor different regions in tissue. The design includes a microwave generation, power amplification, and distribution network that delivers microwaves through specially designed patch antennas into a phantom tissue to heat a specified focal region. The tissue’s change in temperature is monitored by the FMT-TI system while it delivers secondary short-pulse microwaves through a waveguide into the tissue to induce an acoustic pressure wave, which is recorded by a scanning ultrasound transducer. This signal is processed and converted into a heat map displaying temperature intensity across a region of space.