Impact of Microwave Pulse Characteristics on Thermoacoustic Signals Generated during Pulsed Microwave Ablation

Microwave-induced thermoacoustic (TA) imaging is an emerging method for real-time monitoring of microwave ablation (MWA). In this study, we conduct a series of simulations to investigate the impact of two system parameters on TA signal characteristics; microwave frequency and microwave excitation pulse width. We compare the relative impact of these parameters and find that the microwave pulse width becomes less influential on the TA signal peak frequency as microwave frequency decreases due to the impact of microwave frequency on microwave absorption distribution. This study provides valuable insight into the impact of typical system parameters on TA signal characteristics.