Microwave activation of drug release

By Sævar Thor Jonassen

There are several disadvantages concerning conventional medical drug delivery such as pills and capsules taken orally. They often have low drug penetration through the gastrointestinal wall, degradation of the active pharmaceutical components in the stomach and lack of control of the actual time and/or place of the release. Therefore another drug delivery method is proposed, using microwaves to control the release of the drug.

The objective is to design an array of microwave transmitters, whose phases and amplitudes are controlled in a way to create a constructive interference of the transmitted waves and by that, focus the electromagnetic field to a pre-determined area inside the human body. The project includes EM simulation and hardware development as well as a proof-of-principle testing of the system on simplified phantoms.

By externally controlling the time and location of the drug release with microwaves, gives increased flexibility and efficiency in medical drug intake.

 Completed: 2015