International Journal of Hyperthermia

ISSN: 0265-6736 (Print) 1464-5157 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ihyt20

Design of a compact antenna with flared

groundplane for a wearable breast hyperthermia
system
Sergio Curto & Punit Prakash
To cite this article: Sergio Curto & Punit Prakash (2015) Design of a compact antenna with
flared groundplane for a wearable breast hyperthermia system, International Journal of
Hyperthermia, 31:7, 726-736, DOI: 10.3109/02656736.2015.1063170
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/02656736.2015.1063170

Published online: 14 Sep 2015.

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Date: 24 March 2016, At: 13:54

http://informahealthcare.com/hth
ISSN: 0265-6736 (print), 1464-5157 (electronic)
Int J Hyperthermia, 2015; 31(7): 726736
! 2015 Taylor & Francis. DOI: 10.3109/02656736.2015.1063170

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Design of a compact antenna with flared groundplane for a wearable

breast hyperthermia system
Sergio Curto and Punit Prakash

Downloaded by [106.51.240.63] at 13:54 24 March 2016

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas, USA

Abstract

Keywords

Purpose: Currently available microwave hyperthermia systems for breast cancer treatment do
not conform to the intact breast and provide limited control of heating patterns, thereby
hindering an effective treatment. A compact patch antenna with a flared groundplane that may
be integrated within a wearable hyperthermia system for the treatment of the intact breast
disease is proposed.
Materials and methods: A 3D simulation-based approach was employed to optimise
the antenna design with the objective of maximising the hyperthermia treatment volume
(41  C iso-therm) while maintaining good impedance matching. The optimised antenna design
was fabricated and experimentally evaluated with ex vivo tissue measurements.
Results: The optimised compact antenna yielded a 10 dB bandwidth of 90 MHz centred at
915 MHz, and was capable of creating hyperthermia treatment volumes up to 14.4 cm3
(31 mm  28 mm  32 mm) with an input power of 15 W. Experimentally measured reflection
coefficient and transient temperature profiles were in good agreement with simulated profiles.
Variations of + 50% in blood perfusion yielded variations in the treatment volume up to 11.5%.
When compared to an antenna with a similar patch element employing a conventional
rectangular groundplane, the antenna with flared groundplane afforded 22.3% reduction in
required power levels to reach the same temperature, and yielded 2.4 times larger treatment
volumes.
Conclusion: The proposed patch antenna with a flared groundplane may be integrated within a
wearable applicator for hyperthermia treatment of intact breast targets and has the potential to
improve efficiency, increase patient comfort, and ultimately clinical outcomes.

Breast cancer treatment, flared groundplane,

microwave hyperthermia, patch antenna,
wearable medical devices

Introduction
Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer among women and
comprises around 29% of all female cancers [1]. Early
detection and adequate treatment are crucial in the control of
the disease [2] and with an improved and extensive use of
screening techniques, small carcinomas can be detected, and
treated with minimally invasive and non-invasive therapies.
Surgical resection (lumpectomy) is the gold standard for
treatment of many breast tumours; chemotherapy and radiation therapy are also clinically used [3]. Clinical trials have
demonstrated the benefit of adding hyperthermia, moderate
heating in the range of 41  C5T545  C for 30-60 min, as an
adjuvant to radiation and/or chemotherapy of tumours in
several sites, including breast cancer recurrence to the chest
wall [47]. Therapeutic effects of hyperthermia include: some

Correspondence: Punit Prakash, Department of Electrical and Computer

Engineering, Kansas State University, 2061 Rathbone Hall, Manhattan,
KS 66506, USA. Tel: +1-785-532-3358. Fax: +1-785-532-1188. E-mail:
prakashp@ksu.edu

History
Received 18 March 2015
Revised 22 May 2015
Accepted 13 June 2015
Published online 11 September 2015

direct cytotoxicity due to heating, tumour radiosensitisation

and chemosensitisation [8], and stimulation of a mild antitumour immune response. Energy sources that have been
investigated for delivering hyperthermia with non-invasive
applicators include capacitive [9] and inductive [10] radiofrequency devices, microwave antennas [11] and focused
ultrasound. The clinical treatment goal is to raise the targeted
tumour temperature to 4145  C and deliver thermal doses of
610 min at 43  C for 90% of the measured points
(CEM43T90) [4,12].
Applicators incorporating a variety of modalities have been
developed for treatment of locally advanced breast cancer.
Microwave hyperthermia technology (waveguide applicators
operating at 915 MHz and 2.45 GHz) has been employed in
clinical trials of breast cancer recurrences to the chest wall
adjuvant to radiation therapy [13,14]. These trials indicated
significant correlation between tumour depth and complete
response rate; tumours located at depths more than 2 cm from
the skin yielded poor results [13]. Furthermore, drawbacks of
these waveguides are their large dimensions, weight, comfort
level, limited adaptability for individual patient treatments,
and the limited spatial control of energy deposition [15,16].

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Figure 1. Two-dimensional view of the proposed antenna with flared groundplane and breast model (A), and 3D zoomed view of the patch
element (B) with the parametrised dimensions.

Other methods for delivering microwave hyperthermia to the

intact breast have been explored, including a deformable
mirror approach [17] and a metamaterial microwave lens [18]
to focus energy within tumours. Fenn et al. [19] developed an
approach for focused microwave hyperthermia involving
multiple waveguides compressing the targeted breast. Stang
et al. have developed a rigid cylindrical array of patch
antennas for non-invasive high-temperature thermal therapy
and imaging of breast targets [20]. Ultra-wideband strategies
for non-invasive delivery of microwave hyperthermia have
also been explored [21].
While ultrasound energy offers the advantage of deep
penetration depth, the short acoustic wavelength within soft
tissue results in small focal spots. Since hyperthermia
treatments require moderate heating of large volumes,
techniques for scanning the focal spot over the treatment
volume are typically employed [2224]. Guo and Li [25]
proposed a waveform diversity technique for hyperthermia,
demonstrating feasibility of effective heating of a 16-mm
diameter tumour centred 10 mm beneath the skin surface.
Bakker et al. [26] conducted a computational investigation of
a low frequency (100 kHz) ultrasound array for hyperthermia treatment of tumours within intact breast. Their study
indicated the feasibility of treating deep-seated tumours
(49 cm from the skin surface) with an applicator consisting
of six rings with 32 transducers per ring. Ultrasound
applicators have been designed and clinically employed for
simultaneously delivering hyperthermia and ionising radiation to large regions of the chest for treatment of recurrent
disease [27]. The small focal spots feasible with ultrasound
energy are well suited to high temperature focused ultrasound
surgery of breast tumours [28].
Although the approaches summarised above facilitate
delivery of hyperthermia to deep-seated targets, they
generally require horizontal patient positioning with the
breast vertically suspended within a cavity. An ergonomically shaped and wearable system in close proximity to the
breast would offer enhanced energy deposition, reduced
power requirements, and increased comfort, which would
facilitate treatment delivery, improve therapeutic adherence
and patient treatment persistence [29]. Stauffer et al. [30]
developed a conformal array of microstrip antennas for
hyperthermia treatment of large surfaces with superficial

chest wall disease (520 mm depth). Compared to waveguide

technologies, this approach significantly improves patient
comfort and provides enhanced control of power deposition
patterns over large treatment areas. However, these applicators are not well suited to treatment of disease within
intact breast. Requirements of antenna designs for noninvasive hyperthermia include good impedance matching
and bandwidth, generation of predominantly tangential
electric fields, small size, and ability to conform to the
targeted anatomy. Furthermore, for wearable devices, there
is an additional requirement that electromagnetic interaction
(EMI) remains within prescribed safety limits. Several
antenna designs have been considered for non-invasive
hyperthermia, including patch [31], spiral [32], dipoles
[33,34], and others. Benefits of patch antennas include the
simple design, good impedance matching, and ability to
generate tangential electric fields. They have been extensively characterised and utilised for treatment of tumours in
the head and neck [35,36].
The objective of this study was to design and characterise
the electromagnetic and heating performance of a novel
915 MHz patch antenna with a flared conical groundplane
for integration within a wearable breast hyperthermia
system. The optimised antenna design yields good impedance matching for antenna positions in close proximity
(5 mm) to the breast, does not require a feed-line matching
network, yields large treatment volumes that are robust to
relatively large changes in blood perfusion, and offers
significantly reduced power requirements and leakage
radiation.

Materials and methods

Design objectives
Our long-term objective is to develop a microwave hyperthermia system that integrates into a brassiere cup (or other
garment) to increase comfort during the clinical session. The
applicator needs to be light and compact, both in profile, and
cross-section, and the system needs to be robust to maintain
electromagnetic energy focused on the targeted tumour while
tolerating small patient movements during clinical hyperthermia treatments. The applicator should be located close to the
skin to minimise power loss in the water bolus. Changing

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Table 1. Tissue dielectric and thermal properties for 915 MHz.

Property
Relative permittivity, er
Conductivity, , S m1
Density, , kg m3
Heat capacity, C, J kg1  C1
Thermal cond., k, W m1  C1
Blood perfusion coefficient, B, W m3  C1
Metabolic heat, A0, W m3

De-ionised water
79.95 [43]
0.20 [43]
1000 [21]
4186 [21]
0.6 [21]
NA
NA

Skin
46.02
0.85
1085
3765
0.397
5929
1620

Fibroglandular tissue

[42]
[42]
[21]
[21]
[21]
[21]
[21]

41.14
0.83
1050
3600
0.5
2700
690

[44]
[44]
[41]
[41]
[41]
[41]
[41]

Fat
5.45
0.051
1069
2279
0.306
2229
350

[42]
[42]
[41]
[41]
[41]
[41]
[41]

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Figure 2. Schematic representation of the

antenna with flared groundplane (A) and with
rectangular groundplane (B).

loading conditions encountered in different patients can

compromise the system stability. These conditions include
varying skin thickness, tumour composition, variable antenna
to skin distances, and patient postural changes. These
variations are equivalent to changes in the effective wavelength of the target, with the consequent system variation in
frequency response. Large matched impedance bandwidth is
therefore desirable to enhance the overall system stability. The
applicator should present tangentially aligned E-fields to
improve energy deposition into the breast tissue, avoid hot
spots in the skin, and to reduce the power required to couple
energy into the tumour volume [31,37]. Avoiding the use of
impedance matching circuits increases system eHciency and
simplifies clinical integration.
Antenna geometry
Figure 1 shows the proposed antenna which comprises a
rectangular patch of length L, and width W, and a flared
groundplane. The flared groundplane has a conical geometry
parameterised by the base diameter BD, and top diameter TD.
The patch is centrally aligned with the ground-plane base, and
positioned at a distance h1. The antenna feed is centred with
respect to W, and at a distance Lo from the patch edge. The
water bolus formed all the cavity enclosed by the flared
groundplane, breast and chest wall. Dionised water completely filling the water bolus was used to improve the
matched impedance, reduce the size of the applicator, and
cool both the antenna and surface of the skin.
Numerical breast phantom
A coupled 3D electromagnetic bioheat transfer finite element
method (FEM) model was implemented to characterise the
performance of candidate antenna designs. The Helmholtz
wave equation was solved to determine the electromagnetic
fields deposited in the tissue by the prototype applicator.

The Pennes bioheat equation was used to compute the

temperature profile in the tissue [38].
C

@T
r  krT Q  BT  Tbl A0
@t

where  is the material density (kg m3), C is the specific heat

capacity (J kg1 C1), T is the variable quantity of temperature ( C) at a time t (s), k is the thermal conductivity (W m1
 1
C ), Q is the heat source or volumetric power deposition
(W m3), B is the blood perfusion coefficient (W m3 C1),
Tbl is the blood temperature ( C), and A0 is the heat generated
by metabolism (W m3). A steady-state formulation of the
Pennes equation (i.e. dT
dt 0, which is suitable for longduration (3060 min) hyperthermia treatments [39] was
employed for simulations during the design/optimisation
phase. The transient version of Equation 1 was employed
when comparing experimentally observed temperature profiles with simulations. The heat source in the Pennes equation
was calculated from the electromagnetic fields using
Equation 2
QJE

where J is the current density (A m2), and E is the electric

field intensity (V m1). To minimise computational
resources and for clarity of the results, a hemispheric twolayer numerical breast phantom was used. The breast
phantom had an outer diameter of 90 mm and comprised a
2-mm thick skin layer encompassing fibroglandular tissue
[40]. The chest wall, modelled as a 140 mm  140 mm layer
of 15-mm thick fat adjacent to 5-mm thick muscle (with the
same thermal properties as fibroglandular tissue as in [41]
and dielectric properties as in [42]), terminated the top wall
of the breast phantom, as shown in Figure 1. The
temperature of the water was kept constant at 20  C.
Frequency dependent dielectric and thermal properties for

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Figure 3. Schematic representation of the breast comprising the treatment volume (41  C iso-therm volume), distance from the skin to the treatment
volume, d41, width of the treatment volume in the plane yz, w41_yz, width of the treatment volume in the plane xz, w41_xz, and length of the treatment
volume l41.

water, skin, fibroglandular and fat tissue were implemented

in the model, as listed in Table 1.
Perfect electric conductor boundary conditions were
applied on all copper surfaces. Scattering boundary conditions
were applied at the edges of the outer walls of the chest to
minimise reflections at model boundaries. A fixed temperature boundary condition (T 20  C) was applied at the water
skin interface to approximate the cooling effects of circulating
water. Temperature at extents of the chest wall was set to
37  C to mimic actual body temperature. The model was
discretised using a non-uniform mesh of tetrahedral elements.
The antenna feed was modelled with the finest meshing,
maximum edge length of 0.1 mm, and the coarsest elements
were employed further away from the antenna with a
maximum element edge length of 3.0 mm. This mesh
resolution was determined following iterative adjustments to
satisfy a Cauchy convergence test on the S11. Electromagnetic
and thermal simulations were performed using COMSOL
Multiphysics (Burlington, MA) on a 24-core workstation,
with 64 GB RAM, running Red Hat Linux.

representation of the proposed antenna with flared groundplane and the antenna with rectangular groundplane. The Efield profile generated by each antenna was evaluated to
identify potential hot-spots and assess the electric field
radiated outside the targeted tissue. For thermal models, the
following thermal parameters were employed to characterise
the treatment zone when considering a nominal input power
of 15 W: maximum tissue temperature, distance from the
skin to the treatment volume d41, width of the treatment volume in the plane yz w41_yz, width of the treatment volume
in the plane xz w41_xz, and length of the treatment volume
l41, as shown in Figure 3. Additionally, extents of the
treatment volume were also quantified with input power
adjusted to achieve a maximum tissue temperature of 46  C.
To characterise the robustness of the proposed antenna,
50% variation in blood perfusion within the glandular tissue
[3945] were evaluated.

Evaluation of antenna designs

The proposed antenna with flared groundplane was fabricated, employing optimised antenna dimensions identified
from simulations. The patch and groundplane were implemented with 0.127-mm thick copper sheets (McMaster-Carr,
Elmhurst, IL). A 50 X SMA female connector (PE4099,
Pasternack Enterprise, Irvine, CA) was used to feed the
antenna. The broadband reflection coefficient of the fabricated antenna was measured when in proximity to a tissue
phantom of ex vivo chicken breast. Heating experiments in the
tissue phantom were performed with the set-up illustrated in
Figure 4 to measure the transient temperature profiles induced
by the proposed applicator. Chicken breast samples were
heated to 32  C in a temperature controlled bath before
performing the heating experiments and then positioned in a
1.5-mm thick PTFE fixture. Fibre-optic temperature probes
(Neoptix RFX-04-1, Qualitrol, Fairport, NY) guided with a
PTFE template were placed within the tissue sample as shown
in Figure 5. Room temperature water was circulated through
the system at a flow rate of 5 mL/s with a peristaltic pump
(Cole-Parmer, 7554-90, Vernon Hills, IL). Applied input
power was initially set at 20 W during the first 2 min and then
reduced to 8 W for the following 8 min. These power levels

The key performance criteria of a microwave hyperthermia

applicator are 1) the efficient transfer of energy into the
targeted tissue, and 2) the induced tissue temperature profile
(treatment volume and uniformity of heating). The parametrised dimensions (W, L, Lo, h1, h2, BD, and TD) of the
proposed applicator (Figure 1) were optimised with the aim of
large treatment volume and antenna matched impedance
(S1130 dB). The extent of the hyperthermia treatment
volume was approximated with the 41  C iso-therm [39].
After the optimum values were obtained, a sensitivity analysis
was performed to evaluate the impact of small variations of
individual geometric parameters.
In order to compare the performance of the proposed
antenna design, a second antenna with a rectangular
groundplane (i.e. conventional patch antenna) was evaluated.
The optimisation parameters of this second antenna were the
width and length of the rectangular groundplane being able
to fit in the base of the flared groundplane. All the other
antenna and water bolus dimensions were the same as in the
proposed antenna. The optimisation goal was to minimise
the S11 at 915 MHz. Figure 2 shows a 3D schematic

Experimental evaluation and validation against

simulations

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Figure 4. Set-up for experimental assessment of antennas in ex vivo tissue.

Figure 5. Schematic representation of the antenna set-up measurement.

were employed to mimic a ramp up to target temperature,

followed by maintenance within the hyperthermic temperature range. Heating experiments were performed in
quadruplicate.
To facilitate a fair comparison of experimental measurements against simulations, an additional computational model
closely mimicking the experimental set-up was implemented
(see Figure 5). This model employed dielectric properties of
the PTFE of fixture and temperature template as in
Arunachalam et al. [46], and chicken breast phantom
measured with an Agilent 85070D (Santa Clara, CA) openended coaxial dielectric probe kit. The measured values
(er 57.75 and  1.49 S/m) were in good agreement with
values reported in the literature [47]. In these simulations we
employed thermal properties of muscle; the initial phantom
temperature was set to 32  C, and a fixed temperature
boundary condition (T 25  C) was applied at waterfixture
interference to approximate the cooling effects of the
circulating water.

Results
The optimal antenna dimensions, offering a balance between
large treatment volume and S11 less than 30 dB (i.e.50.1%
reflected power), were W 3.9 mm, L 13.7 mm,
h1 3.3 mm, Lo 0.25 mm, h2 5 mm, BD 40 mm and
TD 123 mm. Figure 6 illustrates how the dimensions of the

flared groundplane impacts the treatment volume and S11 at

915 MHz, when considering an input power of 15 W.
The impact of the antenna dimensions, patch width, W,
patch length, L, groundplane to patch distance, h1, feed offset,
Lo, and distance patch to skin, h2, on the antenna matched
impedance (S11) was evaluated and it is illustrated in Figure 7.
Figure 8 shows the simulated S11 values for the flared and
rectangular ground-plane antennas with their optimised
dimensions. The optimised dimensions of the rectangular
groundplane were 32.5 mm  17.0 mm, which represented a
conventional groundplane yielding a resonant frequency at
915 MHz. Simulations show a good agreement with resonant
frequencies centred at 915 MHz and 10 dB bandwidth of
90 MHz for the flared ground-plane antenna and 85 MHz for
the rectangular ground-plane antenna.
The E-field cross-section on the planes -yz and -xz of the
flared and rectangular ground-plane antenna with an input
power of 15 W are shown in Figure 9. In order to quantify
the E-field leakage on the back of the antenna, the E-field
was evaluated at a point centred with the groundplane and at
a distance of 10 mm, as shown in Figure 9. The simulated Efield at that location was 25.8 V m1 and 136.6 V m1
for the flared and rectangular ground-plane antenna,
respectively.
Figure 10 shows the temperature cross-section on the
planes -yz and -xz of the flared and rectangular ground-plane
antenna with an input power of 15 W. At this power level,
treatment volumes and maximum tissue temperatures for the
flared ground-plane antenna were 14.4 cm3 and 47.3  C,
respectively, and for the rectangular ground-plane antenna
were 1.48 cm3 and 42.9  C, respectively. Additional simulations were performed with input power for both antenna
designs adjusted to limit maximum tissue temperature to
46  C. The required input power for a maximum temperature
of 46  C was 13.9 W for the flared groundplane and 17.9 W
for the rectangular ground-plane antenna. Table 2 lists input
power and evaluated thermal parameters for both the flared
and rectangular ground-plane antennas.
Figure 11 illustrates the treatment volume, maximum
tissue temperature with an input power of 15 W, and required
power to reach 46  C for 50% variation in the blood
perfusion coefficient in the glandular tissue for the antenna
with flared groundplane. Increasing the blood perfusion by

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Figure 6. Treatment volume (A) and S11 (B) for different cone base diameter (BD) and top diameter (TD).

+50% generates a linear decrease of around 11.5% in the

treatment volume and 1.5% in the maximum temperature. The
power required to reach 46  C increased by 3.6% for this 50%
blood perfusion increment. With 50% increase in the perfusion, the flared ground-plane antenna still renders a treatment
volume 8.6 times larger than the rectangular ground-plane
antenna without any increase in the perfusion considering
same input power.
Figure 12 shows the experimentally measured and
simulated broadband reflection coefficient with the ex vivo
tissue phantom (employing parameters mimicking the experimental set-up).
Figure 13 shows experimentally measured (n 4) and
simulated transient temperature profiles during heating
experiments performed in chicken breast, while manually
adjusting power (20 W for 2 min, followed by 8 W for 8 min)
to allow for a rapid temperature rise, followed by maintenance
of hyperthermic temperature.

Discussion
This study was initiated to design and evaluate the feasibility
of a wearable breast hyperthermia system. A lightweight and
wearable system would avoid uncomfortable breast compression and follow patient breathing and motion, allowing patient
postural changes during the treatment, thereby improving
comfort [30], facilitating treatment persistency, and therapeutic adherence [29]. The wearable device may contribute
towards delivering hyperthermia treatments in a repeatable
manner over the course of several radiation and/or chemotherapy fractions. A patch antenna design was considered for
this study because it presents the advantages of being light,
does not require a feed-line matching network, can be
constructed with an ergonomic shape, and can generate
tangential electric fields.
Simulations were employed to optimise the dimensions of
the antenna and assess its robustness. The ground-plane

dimensions were found to have a significant effect on the

power deposition and matched impedance. With the aim of
getting the largest possible treatment volume while keeping a
matched impedance close to 30 dB, the optimum values of
BD and TD were found to be 40 mm and 123 mm, respectively
(Figure 6). If the system allows the compromising of the
amount of reflected power, greater treatment volumes can be
achieved. A sensitivity analysis of the antenna dimensions and
distance to the skin was performed (Figure 7). Changes on the
patch width, W, and feed offset, Lo, did not generate a
noticeable change in the resonant frequency, considering
variations up to 50%, S11 at 915 MHz remained less than
15 dB. However, the matched impedance was more sensitive
to the patch length, L, and groundplane to patch distance, h1;
variations of 10% would degrade the S11 at 915 MHz to
values greater than 10 dB. The evaluated increases of L and
h1 rendered an almost linear decrease in resonant frequency.
Previous studies have indicated that a water bolus layer of
between 5 mm and 10 mm thick was found to be optimum to
avoid hot spots in the surface of treated tissue [48,49]. In this
study, the water bolus filled the entire cavity between the
groundplane, the breast and chest wall. While the groundplane was kept in contact with the chest wall, the breast was
placed at different distances from the patch. Patch antenna to
skin distances (h2) ranging between 3 mm and 11 mm were
evaluated. These variations did not generate a noticeable
change in the resonant frequency and the optimum S11 was
found at h2 of 5 mm. Locating the applicator in close
proximity to the breast considerably increases the antenna
efficiency and reduces the required transmitted power,
simplifying the power amplifier requirements. Simulations
demonstrated that the flared and rectangular groundplane antennas had similar impedance matching profiles
(see Figure 8).
The flared ground-plane antenna yielded an E-field
distribution confined within the groundplane and focused
into the tissue with a defined central hotspot, whereas

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732

Figure 7. Simulated S11 of the antenna with flared groundplane for different values of (A) W, (B) L, (C) h1, (D) Lo, and (E) h2.

significant E-field is radiated away from the tissue for the

rectangular ground-plane design, which generates a diffuse
hotspot inside the tissue. An evaluation of the E-field centred
with the groundplane and at a distance of 10 mm shows the
back-radiation reduced by 81.1% for the flared groundplane
compared to the rectangular ground-plane antenna.

Minimising the leakage E-field is desirable to avoid undesirable interference with other medical devices. Power deposited
in the fibroglandular tissue region, compared to total power
loss (i.e. power deposited in skin, fibroglandular tissue, and
water) was 0.45 for the flared ground-plane antenna, and 0.31
for the rectangular ground-plane antenna. Considering the

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same input power for the flared and rectangular ground-plane

antenna (15 W), the flared ground-plane antenna achieves 9.7
times larger treatment volumes. Taking into account the
power required to reach 46  C, the flared ground-plane
antenna requires 22.3% less power (i.e. increase in efficiency)
and still yields 2.4 times larger treatment volumes. In addition
to these outcomes, and considering the adjusted power to
reach 46  C, the flared ground-plane antenna provides

Figure 8. Simulated S11 of the antennas with flared and rectangular

groundplane with the optimised dimensions of W, L, h1, Lo, h2, BD
and TD.

Compact wearable antenna for breast hyperthermia

733

enhanced penetration, affording 45.5% increase in treatment

depth (l41 increased from 16.83 mm for the rectangular patch
to 27.4 mm for the flared ground-plane). Also, wyz_41 and
wxz_41 increased around 38.2% and 43% respectively for the
flared ground-plane antenna. The power reduction ability of
the flared ground-plane antenna affords an increase of the
distance from the skin to the treatment volume d41 of 31.4%
compared to the rectangular ground-plane antenna. To assess
the impact of variable blood perfusion on treatment outcome,
perfusion in the glandular tissue was varied by 50% from
the basal value for the antenna with flared groundplane.
Model-predicted treatment volume remained stable over the
range of simulated perfusion values, suggesting that the
optimised flared patch antenna design will be capable of
delivering reliable hyperthermia treatments in patients with
disparate blood flow profiles. It provides a starting point for
power selection based on the perfusion values for individual
patients; clinical treatments will incorporate temperaturebased feedback control algorithms for reliable delivery of
hyperthermia to targeted volumes [50].
Measured reflection coefficient in ex vivo chicken breast
was in good agreement with simulations, showing resonance
at 915 MHz and an average difference between measurement
and simulations of 1.8 dB on the evaluated frequency range.
The measured temperature profiles (see Figure 13) illustrate
the ability of the proposed antenna design to heat targets
within the breast when applying relatively low input power
levels under manual control (820 W). Measured temperature
profiles were in good agreement with simulations.
In this study we have employed computational and
experimental approaches to design and characterise a patch
antenna element with a flared groundplane for microwave

Figure 9. E-field profile for the flared groundplane antenna plane yz (A) and xz (C) and rectangular ground-plane antenna plane yz (B) and xz (D), with
15 W input power.

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Figure 10. Temperature profile for the flared

ground-plane antenna plane yz (A) and xz (C)
and rectangular ground-plane antenna plane
yz (B) and xz (D), with 15 W input power.

informed by patient-specific images to illustrate potential

clinical applications of the proposed design. Ongoing studies
are investigating potential for implementing conformal patch
antenna designs with conductive-ink printers on thin, flexible
substrates to facilitate integration within hyperthermia garments [51]. While this study focused on the performance of
the antenna with a single radiating element, future work
investigating how multiple antennas can be integrated within
the system (i.e. number of elements, inter-element spacing,
antenna excitation parameters) to afford improved focusing
and coverage of larger treatment volumes at greater depths is
warranted.

Conclusion

Figure 11. Treatment volume, maximum temperature with 15 W input

power (symbolised with ), and required power to reach 46  C for
different perfusion values for the proposed antenna with flared
groundplane.

hyperthermia of breast targets. Compared to a conventional

patch antenna employing a rectangular groundplane the
proposed system has reduced power requirements, generates
substantially reduced E-field outside the targeted breast, and
is capable of treating larger treatment volumes to greater
depths. This initial study, focused towards design of the
antenna element, did not incorporate dielectric and thermal
heterogeneities between the targeted tumour and background
breast tissues. Similar to other studies of microwave hyperthermia, we hypothesise that dielectric contrast between
tumour and background tissue will enable greater heating of
the target with respect to non-targeted regions [44]. Future
studies will incorporate detailed anatomical features as

Design, optimisation, and evaluation of a novel compact

antenna with flared groundplane for integration within a
wearable platform for delivering microwave hyperthermia
treatments of breast cancer was presented. The proposed
design provides good matched impedance at 915 MHz, does
not require the use of a feed-line matching network, and
facilitates treatment volumes up to 14.43 cm3 with an input
power of 15 W. Compared to evaluated patch antenna
designs incorporating a conventional rectangular groundplane, the proposed conformal design yields significantly
larger treatment volume and reduction in power required.
Computational models indicate the size of treatment volume
is relatively stable when considering up to 50% changes
in tissue blood perfusion, making it well suited for treatment
of patients with disparate blood perfusion profiles. The
reduced size of the patch element (13.7 mm  3.9 mm) would
facilitate the potential for future efforts towards integration of
multiple antenna elements within a wearable system.
Furthermore, the proposed wearable design has profile,
weight and complexity advantages over currently available
large waveguides and rigid antenna arrays. This wearable
device has the potential to significantly improve clinical
delivery of conformal hyperthermia and patient comfort
during treatments.

Compact wearable antenna for breast hyperthermia

DOI: 10.3109/02656736.2015.1063170

735

Table 2. Treatment volume outcomes.

Groundplane type
Flared
Rectangular
Flared
Rectangular

Power
(W)

Maximum
temperature
( C)

Treatment
volume
(cm3)

d41
(mm)

wyz_41
(mm)

wxz_41
(m)

l41
(mm)

15
15
13.9
17.9

47.3
42.9
46.0
46.0

14.4
1.48
10.7
4.37

4.93
5.65
5.06
3.85

30.96
13.48
27.81
20.12

28.21
12.13
26.32
18.36

32.05
12.17
27.4
18.83

Johnson Cancer Research Center of the Kansas State

University. The authors alone are responsible for the content
and writing of the paper.

Downloaded by [106.51.240.63] at 13:54 24 March 2016

References

Figure 12. Simulated and measured S11 with the ex vivo tissue phantom.

Figure 13. Transient temperature profiles (n 4) measured during

experimental ex vivo hyperthermia treatment. Two fibre-optic temperature probes were placed at a depth of 10 mm from the tissue surface, and
at the locations shown in Figure 2. Input power was set to 20 W for the
first 2 min followed by 8 W for the following 8 min.

Declaration of interest
This work was supported in part by the National Science
Foundation under grant CBET 1337438 and in part by the

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