A Ku-band miniaturized microwave ablation system integrated on a micromachined silicon applicator

A fully integrated thermal ablation system on a micromachined silicon platform is developed for low-power microwave hyperthermia at Ku-band. The heat applicator has been fabricated using Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) technology for miniaturization and integration with the active circuits. A Ku-band source module consisting of a voltage controlled oscillator, a driver amplifier, and a high power amplifier has been implemented in monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC´s) and integrated on the applicator platform together with a directional coupler and power detectors for power monitoring. The fully integrated heat applicator was realized in a small form factor of 8 mm × 56 mm × 0.6 mm. In-vitro and In-vivo ablation experiments have been performed on pork muscle/fat and human-cancer xenografted nude mouse, respectively. Temperature rise to over 46 °C has been achieved using only 1.2 W of on-board source power.