Hexagon-Shaped Wire Patch Cell for In Vitro Experiments at 2.45 GHz

In this letter, a new wire patch cell (WPC) geometry adopting two hexagon-shaped patches and six metallic ground props has been proposed for in vitro experiments at 2.45 GHz Wi-Fi band. Unlike the conventional WPC, which holds four 35 mm Petri dishes, the proposed WPC can accommodate six 35 mm Petri dishes, each filled with biological medium for cell culture. The increase in the number of available Petri dishes from four to six gives rise to reducing the total time required for in vitro biological experiments. The grounding props positioned close to Petri dishes enlarge the high H-field region, which may be beneficial for achieving a high SAR. In this work, DMEM solutions are used as cell culture medium. The WPC system surrounded by electromagnetic absorbers in shielding box showed a return loss of greater than 10 dB at the 2.45 GHz Wi-Fi band. The SARs for DMEM solutions with 2 mL and 3 mL per dish were demonstrated as 3.77 W/kg and 3.49 W/kg, respectively, when a 0.5 W RF signal was supplied. The proposed WPC provided a high level of efficiency considering SAR, RF input power, and cell culture conductivity compared with other structures.