Performance of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Temperature Sensors for Microwave Thermal Ablation in Agar Solidified Dissipative Environment

This work explores the use of amorphous silicon temperature sensors for temperature monitoring in Microwave Thermal Ablation (MTA) applica-tions. MTA is a minimally invasive technique that uses the heat generated by the absorption of microwave electromagnetic fields (EMF) to raise the tissues’ temperature and destroy pathological masses. To optimize MTA and to avoid damage to the surrounding healthy tissues, it is fundamental to monitor the temperature during the treatment. Here we investigate a solution based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) temperature sensors, that, thanks to their small dimensions and low deposition temperature, are suitable to be integrated directly on the MTA antennas. This work is focused on a study of the sensors’ performances measuring the temperature during a simulated MTA procedure in a dissipative environ-ment similar to human tissues. Scope is to evaluate the feasibility of tem-perature monitoring in MTA through a-Si:H diodes.