Microwave power monitoring

A method of monitoring at least one of reflection or transmission, comprising:

• providing a microwave signal to a load;
• repeatedly varying an operating frequency of the microwave signal over a frequency range, between a maximum frequency and a minimum frequency of the frequency range, thereby to perform a desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation at or by the load;
• performing a plurality of microwave measurements during the desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation, each at a respective one of a plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range and each comprising at least one of reflection or transmission of the microwave signal;
• and
• determining from the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies a measure of at least one of reflection or transmission, wherein the determining comprises averaging the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies such that the determined measure is representative of at least one of an average amount of reflection and an average amount of transmission obtained for said plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range during the ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation.

An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system configured for monitoring microwave at least one of reflected or transmission, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

• providing, by the computer-based system, a microwave signal to a load;
• repeatedly varying, by the computer-based system, an operating frequency of the microwave signal over a frequency range, between a maximum frequency and a minimum frequency of the frequency range, thereby to perform a desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation at or by the load;
• performing, by the computer-based system, a plurality of microwave measurements during the desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation, each at a respective one of a plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range and each comprising at least one of reflection and transmission of the microwave signal;
• and
• determining, by the computer-based system, from the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies a measure of at least one of reflection and transmission, wherein the determining comprises averaging the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies such that the determined measure is representative of at least one of an average amount of reflection and an average amount of transmission obtained for said plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range during the ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation.

A microwave apparatus comprising:

• a microwave source for providing a microwave signal, connectable to a load;
• control means configured in operation to select power and a frequency range of the microwave signal to perform a desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation at or by the load, wherein the selected frequency range has a maximum frequency and a minimum frequency;
• wherein the microwave source provides the microwave signal of the selected power to the load and repeatedly varies an operating frequency of the microwave signal between the maximum frequency and the minimum frequency of the selected range thereby to perform the desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation;
• the apparatus further comprises a microwave detector for performing microwave measurements, arranged to at least one of receive reflections from or transmissions to the load in operation, wherein the microwave detector performs a plurality of measurements during the desired ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation, each measurement corresponding to a respective one of a plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range;
• and
• means for determining from the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies at least one of a measure of reflection or a measure of transmission, wherein the means for determining averages the plurality of measurements at said plurality of different frequencies such that the determined measure is representative of at least one of an average amount of reflection obtained for said plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range and an average amount of transmission obtained for said plurality of different frequencies of the frequency range during the ablation, heating or other energy delivery operation.