Man-portable optical ablation system

• US 20050171516A1
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Published: 08/04/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rayd LLC
• Original Assignee: Raydiance, Inc. (Coherent Corp.)
• Inventors: Stoltz, Richard, Bullington, Jeff
• Granted Patent: US 7,361,171 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 606/9
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/20 using laser
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 18/22 the beam being directed along or through a flexible conduit, e.g. an optical fibre; Couplings or hand-pieces therefor
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2018/00636 Sensing and controlling the application of energy

Abstract

The present invention includes an apparatus and method of surgical ablative material removal “in-vivo” or from an outside surface with a short optical pulse that is amplified and compressed using either an optically-pumped-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination or a SOA and chirped fiber compressor combination, wherein the generating, amplifying and compressing are done within a man-portable system.

Claims

1. A method of surgical ablative material removal, either from an in-vivo surface or from an outside surface with a short optical pulse that is amplified and then compressed, comprising:

generating an initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse in a pulse generator;

amplifying the initial pulse and then compressing the amplified pulse within the man-portable system, wherein the amplifying and compression are done with either an optically-pumped-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination, or a SOA and chirped fiber compressor combination; and

applying the compressed optical pulse to the surface, wherein the generating, amplifying and compressing are done within a man-portable system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein more than one optical amplifiers are used in a train mode.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the compressed optical pulse is applied to the surface in spot with an area between the areas of between about 10 and about 50 micron diameter circles.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the man-portable system comprises a wheeled cart.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the pulse generator is semiconductor-oscillator driven.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the amplifying and compressing is done with a fiber-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination, and the initial pulses are between about ten picoseconds and about one nanosecond.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the fiber amplifier is an erbium-doped fiber amplifier.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the air-path between gratings compressor is a Tracey grating compressor.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein more than one fiber amplifiers are used in a train mode and more than one fiber amplifiers are used with one compressor.

10. A method of ablative material removal, from a surface or with a short optical pulse that is amplified and then compressed, comprising:

generating an initial pulse in a pulse generator;

amplifying the initial pulse and then compressing the amplified pulse within a man-portable system, wherein the amplifying is done with either a optically-pumped-amplifier or a SOA;

compressing the amplified pulse to a duration of one picosecond or less; and

applying the compressed optical pulse to the surface, wherein the generating, amplifying and compressing are done within the man-portable system.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the amplifying and compressing is done with a fiber-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the compressing is done with a chirped fiber compressor.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the man-portable system comprises a wheeled cart.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the man-portable system comprises a backpack.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the fiber amplifier is an erbium-doped fiber amplifier.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the air-path between gratings compressor is a Tracey grating compressor.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein more than one amplifiers are used in a train mode.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein more than one fiber amplifiers are used with one compressor.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein pulse energy density and ablation rate are independently controlled.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein pulse energy density, fiber amplifier operating temperature, and ablation rate are independently controlled.