Universal diathermy heat applicator

A diathermy applicator for delivering controlled heating treatment to capacitively- and inductively-coupled patient target tissue comprising;

• a coil assembly comprising an inductive coil of wire characterized by a coil inductance and a coil resistance
• a source of RF power
• a load characterized as a parallel resistance comprising said coil resistance and a radiation resistance, said radiation resistance exhibiting variance and comprising said capacitively- and inductively-coupled patient target tissue
• a fixed tuning circuit capacitance determining, along with said coil inductance, an unloaded electromagnetic resonant frequency ωl effecting a reactive impedance matching of said RF power to said patient target tissue
• wherein;
• said applicator is characterized by a Q or “quality factor” curve, dependent on said parallel resistance and having a resonant bandwidth throughout which said reactive impedance matching is maintained,
• said load is further characterized as an equivalent series resistance as seen from said source of RF power, which comprises a series equivalent of said parallel load resistance in series with an added resistance
• said variance detunes said reactive impedance matching spontaneously during delivery of said controlled heating,
• said added resistance is selected so as to broaden said resonant bandwidth so as to maintain said reactive impedance matching throughout said treatment.