Ridged waveguides for use in microwave surgical energy devices

Microwave surgical energy devices emit microwaves into biological tissue, causing a temperature rise from within the tissue, which results in tissue coagulation, hemostasis, and vascular anastomosis. The heating region generated by such devices tends to spread outward around the antenna. Because of this characteristic, even when a deeper, vertically distributed heating area is desired, surface expansion of the heating region cannot be avoided, potentially causing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. In order to prevent this, an energy device that minimizes surface energy distribution is needed. In this study, we propose a microwave energy device incorporating a waveguide structure. The waveguide in the proposed device is filled with dielectric material and features a miniaturized cross-section. Furthermore, a ridged waveguide is adopted to generate a localized electric field at the tissue surface. Based on the specific absorption rate (SAR) distributions obtained through both numerical simulations and experiments, itwas confirmed that the microwave energy device using a ridged waveguide can generate a localized heating region effectively.