Energy delivery system using an electric field

A method of delivering energy to animal tissue, comprising:

• synthesizing an RF electric signal;
• adjusting attenuation of the RF electric signal to selectively provide a low-power signal or a high-power signal;
• and
• generating an alternating RF electric field from an RF applicator based on the low-power signal or the high-power signal to couple a low-power or high-power alternating RF electric field to animal tissue for respectively sensing the presence of, or processing, the animal tissue;
• wherein adjusting attenuation of the RF electrical signal comprises:
• providing a first gain setting to provide the low-power signal and measuring a baseline return loss value corresponding to no animal tissue in a processing position of the RF applicator;
• and
• providing a second gain setting having a lower magnitude than a magnitude of the first gain setting to provide the high-power signal in response to detecting a return loss value exceeding a loss threshold value, wherein a return loss value exceeding the loss threshold value corresponds to animal tissue in the processing position of the RF applicator.

An energy delivery system, comprising:

• an RF synthesizer circuit configured to generate an RF electric signal at more than one frequency;
• a preamplification stage operably coupled to an output of the RF synthesizer circuit, wherein the preamplification stage comprises an attenuator;
• a board controller operably coupled to the RF synthesizer circuit and to the attenuator of the preamplification stage, wherein the board controller is configured to:
• modify a gain setting of the attenuator;
• and
• change the frequency of the RF electric signal to impedance match based on a return loss value;
• an output connection configured to provide a low-power signal or a high-power signal based on at least the RF electric signal and the gain setting of the attenuator;
• and
• an RF applicator operably coupled to the output connection, wherein the low-power signal or the high-power signal is configured to be provided to the RF applicator and the RF applicator is configured to couple an alternating low-power or high-power RF electric field to animal tissue for respectively sensing the presence of, or processing, the animal tissue
• wherein when switching between the low-power signal and the high-power signal, the board controller is configured to modify a gain setting of the preamplification stage without modifying a gain value of an amplifier in the preamplification stage.