Metasurface-Based Time-Reversal Focusing for Brain Tumor Microwave Hyperthermia

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel metasurface-based microwave hyperthermia system for brain tumor treatment, offering improved focusing resolution and reduced complexity compared to traditional antenna array systems, demonstrated through simulation results.

Contribution

It introduces a metasurface design using time-reversal techniques for enhanced tumor focusing in hyperthermia therapy, reducing system complexity and cost.

Findings

Superior focal resolution due to subwavelength metasurface particles

Lower system complexity and cost compared to antenna arrays

Effective hyperthermia performance demonstrated in simulations

Abstract

We introduce a metasurface-based system for the microwave hyperthermia treatment of brain tumors, where the metasurface is designed by the time-reversal technique for optimal focusing at the location of the tumor. Compared to previous time-reversal microwave hyperthermia systems, which are based on antenna arrays, the proposed system offers two advantages: 1) it provides superior focal resolution, due to the finer sampling capability of its deeply-subwavelength metasurface particles compared to that of typical array antenna elements, 2) it features much lower complexity and cost, due to its direct illumination principle compared to the heavy feeding network of the array system. The system leverages reflecting metallic walls and a rich scattering structure in combination with the metasurface to achieve high hyperthermia performance with maximal simplicity. The metasurface system is demonstrated by full-wave simulation results, which show that it represents a viable novel noninvasive hyperthermia technology.