A coplanar-waveguide system for cells exposure during electrophysiological recordings

In order to investigate the biological effects of microwave electromagnetic (EM) fields as those emitted from mobile telecommunication equipment, a suitable exposure system has been designed. The system is specific for real-time acquisition of membrane ionic currents in a biological cell, i.e., patch-clamp recordings. Both numerical and experimental characterizations are considered, in terms of EM field and specific absorption rate (SAR) distribution in the Petri dish containing the biological target. Results show a good efficiency of the system in terms of SAR induced in the sample by incident input power.