JPS6360676B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an applicator for heating therapy, and particularly to an applicator for heating therapy for heating a predetermined location of a living body using electromagnetic waves. [Conventional technology and its problems] In recent years, heating therapy

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention improves the disadvantages of the prior art and provides a heating therapy applicator suitable for deep heating, which can reduce the reflection of electromagnetic waves on the surface of a living body and effectively focus the electromagnetic waves. Its purpose is to. [Summary of the Invention] Therefore, in the present invention, a case main body having a function as a waveguide, an electromagnetic wave feeding section equipped at one end of the case main body, and an electromagnetic wave feeding section equipped at the other end of the case main body are provided. In the applicator for heating therapy, which has an opening for transmission and a radio wave lens section is disposed between the opening and the electromagnetic wave feeding section, the outer end of the case body on the electromagnetic wave sending side is provided with a heating device. A relatively soft matching layer made of a low-loss dielectric material and having a dielectric constant close to that of a hot medium is provided. Furthermore, a dielectric plate with low loss and a relatively large dielectric constant is laid on a plane parallel to the electric field component of the electromagnetic wave on the inner wall of the case body. This aims to achieve the above-mentioned purpose. [Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6 to 12.
This will be explained based on the diagram. First, in FIGS. 9 and 10, reference numeral 1
Reference numeral 1 indicates an electromagnetic wave power supply section that outputs electromagnetic waves, and reference numeral 12 indicates a case body for sending the electromagnetic waves sent from the electromagnetic wave power supply section 11 to the living body side, which is a heating medium. The electromagnetic wave power supply section 11 and the case body 12 have a structure that can be separated as shown in the figure. Among these, the case body 12 is constituted by a flange portion 12F for attaching and detaching and a main body waveguide portion 13. Among these, a radio wave lens section 14 (see FIGS. 7 and 10) is equipped in an opening 13A on the electromagnetic wave sending side in the main body waveguide section 13. In contact with this radio wave lens part 14, a matching layer 15 for a heating medium (see FIG. 6), a dielectric member 16 filled in the radio wave lens part 14 (see FIG. 11), and a radio wave lens part 14 and a cooling means 17 for cooling the matching layer 15 simultaneously. In this example, the frequency of the electromagnetic wave is 2450MHz.
Therefore, the main body waveguide section 13 and the power feeding side waveguide 11B described later are each adapted to this. Furthermore, in order to downsize the entire applicator, the radio wave lens section 14 is
Unlike the conventional example equipped in the horn, the opening 13 on the electromagnetic wave sending side of the main body waveguide section 13
It is located close to A. Specifically, the configuration of this radio wave lens section 14 is the same as that of the conventional example described above. Furthermore, the dielectric member 16 filled in the radio wave lens section 14 is a dielectric material having a dielectric constant similar to that of the heating medium A in this embodiment, thereby reducing the cross-sectional area of the case body 12. is about 1/√
The size has been reduced to a size of ε (where ε is the dielectric constant of the dielectric member 16). Furthermore, the matching layer 15 is interposed to prevent reflection of electromagnetic waves generated between the case body 12 and the heating medium A, thereby effectively transmitting electromagnetic waves from the case body 12 to the heating medium A. It is designed so that it can be sent. In this embodiment, a soft dielectric material having a dielectric constant close to that of the heating medium A is used as the matching layer 15, thereby maintaining good mechanical adhesion with the heating medium A. At the same time, the structure is such that reflected waves between the two are reduced as much as possible. As shown in FIG. 6, the cooling means 17 is integrated with the matching layer 15, and its contact surface is formed in a concave shape to match the shape of the heating medium A. This cooling means 17 is the matching layer 1 in this embodiment.
A plurality of cooling tubes 17 incorporated in a lattice pattern in 5
A, 17A, . . . and cooling water flowing through each cooling thin tube 17A. Each of the cooling thin tubes 17A is connected to the radio wave lens section 14 described above.
(see FIG. 7), so that the radio wave lens section 14 and the matching layer 15 are simultaneously and effectively cooled. It's summery. On the other hand, the electromagnetic wave power supply section 11 includes a coaxial connector 11
A and a feeding waveguide 11B equipped with the same, and the inner wall of the feeding waveguide 11B is made of a dielectric plate 20 with low loss and a relatively large dielectric constant, as shown in FIG. The structure is equipped with
A dielectric plate 30, which functions in the same manner as this dielectric plate 20, is also attached to the inner wall of the conductive tube portion 13 of the case body 12, as shown in FIG. In addition, 11F and 12F are shown in Figures 9 to 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, a flange portion is shown for removably connecting the electromagnetic wave power supply section 11 and the case body 12. This allows the user to always select and use the most suitable applicator body 12 since the shapes and sizes of the heating medium A vary.Specifically, the size of the electromagnetic wave sending surface and the cooling means A large number of recesses with various radius of curvature etc. are prepared in advance. Next, the overall function of the above embodiment will be explained. First, when a predetermined electromagnetic wave is sent through the coaxial connector 11A, the power feeding waveguide 11B sends it to the case body 12 described above. In this case, the power feeding side waveguide 11B and the case body 1
Due to the action of the dielectric plates 20 attached to each inner wall of FIG. In the embodiment, it is uniform as shown in FIG. This makes it possible to send electromagnetic waves with substantially uniform energy distribution to the radio wave lens section 14. Since an electromagnetic wave similar to a plane wave is emitted from this radio wave lens section 14, its focusing function is effectively exhibited, and at the same time, matching is performed at the matching layer 15, so that
The electromagnetic waves are sent to the heating medium A described above with high efficiency with little reflection loss. In the experiment,
There is a clear difference in the temperature rise on the heating medium A depending on the presence or absence of the dielectric plates 20 and 30 mentioned above, and the degree of change is approximately 15% to 20% higher than the internal temperature increase due to electromagnetic energy. The results showed that it was possible to heat deeper parts of the body. In addition, the cooling means 17 cools the heating medium A described above to prevent its surface from overheating, and also to prevent the temperature of the case body 12 from rising due to Joule loss occurring inside the radio lens section 14 and the matching layer 15. This makes it possible to efficiently perform heating therapy for a long period of one to two hours. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, a relatively low-loss dielectric member having a dielectric constant close to that of the heating medium is provided at the outer end of the case body on the electromagnetic wave sending side. Since a soft matching layer is provided, the action of this matching layer improves the matching between the case body and the heating medium, reducing the reflection of electromagnetic waves at these points and efficiently transmitting them into the heating medium. It is possible to send electromagnetic wave energy, and because we have adopted a structure in which a dielectric plate with low loss and a relatively large dielectric constant is laid on a plane parallel to the electric field component of the electromagnetic wave on the inner wall of the case body, it is especially effective in the radio wave lens section. The electric field strength of the electromagnetic waves sent to the heating medium is made uniform, and the electromagnetic waves are sent to the radio lens part in a state close to a plane wave as a whole, so the radio lens part focuses the electromagnetic waves with high efficiency and directs them deeper into the heating medium. It is possible to provide an unprecedented and excellent applicator for heating therapy, which can be delivered and thereby effectively improve heating efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional example, Fig. 2 is an explanatory view showing a radio wave lens section equipped in Fig. 1,
Figures 3 and 4 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of Figure 2, respectively;
5. FIGS. 1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams showing the propagation status of electromagnetic waves in the waveguides shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, respectively. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the case body showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a perspective view showing the waveguide part of the case body.
The figure is a perspective view showing the power supply part, FIG. 9 is an overall plan view of this embodiment, FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken along the - line in FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 is a line XI-XI in FIG. 10. FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing the electric field distribution of electromagnetic waves propagating in the waveguides of FIGS. 8 to 11. 11... Electromagnetic wave power supply section, 12... Case body,
13... Main body waveguide part forming part of the case main body,
13A...Aperture, 14...Radio wave lens part, 15
...Consistent layer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A case body having a function as a waveguide,
The case body has an electromagnetic wave power feeding part equipped at one end of the case body, and an electromagnetic wave sending opening formed at the other end of the case body, and a radio wave is transmitted between the opening part and the electromagnetic wave power feeding part. In a heating therapy applicator provided with a lens part, the outer end of the case body on the electromagnetic wave sending side is made of a dielectric member having a dielectric constant close to that of the heating medium and having low loss. In addition to disposing a soft matching layer, a dielectric plate with low loss and a relatively large dielectric constant is laid on a plane parallel to the electric field component of the electromagnetic wave on the inner wall of the case body. Applicator for heating therapy.