Ultrasonic therapeutic system
First Claim
1. An ultrasonic therapeutic device, comprising a flexible substrate material adapted for retained application to a part of a living body, said substrate material having an inner face carrying two or more piezoelectric transducer elements in spaced array, an impedance matching layer bonded to each of said elements for direct application to the body, and flexible conductor means which at least in part comprise printed circuitry carried by said impedance-matching layer, said flexible conductor means being associated individually with one to the exclusion of another of said elements for individually exciting said elements for irradiation into the body via said impedance-matching layer, said impedance-matching layer being a composite of two laminations of impedance-matching material, with said printed circuitry on one surface of one of said laminations, the printed-circuitry surface being at the interface between the consolidated laminations, the impedance of said impedance-matching layer being substantially that of soft living tissue.
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Abstract
In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a plurality of spaced ultrasonic piezoelectric transducers, which may be so fixed to and around an afflicted area of a patient as to enable their sequential or interlaced excitation, whereby the afflicted area of the patient can be excited from different aspects, so that ultrasonic energy is not permitted to enter the body from any single point on a continuous-wave basis. Each transducer delivers its ultrasonic energy via a body of material having a wave impedance that substantially matches the wave impedance of human soft tissue, thereby avoiding or minimizing the annoyance of a mismatched entry into the patient'"'"'s body. The net result is for the patient to derive the therapeutic benefits of a moving applicator, without any physical displacement of one with respect to any other of the plural spaced transducers. Various embodiments and an illustrative plurality of different excitation sequences are described.
38 Citations
25 Claims
- 1. An ultrasonic therapeutic device, comprising a flexible substrate material adapted for retained application to a part of a living body, said substrate material having an inner face carrying two or more piezoelectric transducer elements in spaced array, an impedance matching layer bonded to each of said elements for direct application to the body, and flexible conductor means which at least in part comprise printed circuitry carried by said impedance-matching layer, said flexible conductor means being associated individually with one to the exclusion of another of said elements for individually exciting said elements for irradiation into the body via said impedance-matching layer, said impedance-matching layer being a composite of two laminations of impedance-matching material, with said printed circuitry on one surface of one of said laminations, the printed-circuitry surface being at the interface between the consolidated laminations, the impedance of said impedance-matching layer being substantially that of soft living tissue.
- 10. An ultrasonic therapeutic device, comprising a flexible substrate material adapted for retained application to a part of a living body, said substrate material having an inner face carrying two or more piezoelectric transducer elements in spaced array, an impedance matching layer bonded to each of said elements for direct application to the body, flexible conductor means associated individually with one to the exclusion of another of said elements for individually exciting said elements for irradiation into the body via said impedance-matching layer, the impedance of said impedance-matching layer being substantially that of soft living tissue, and a pressure-release layer covering at least the backside of each transducer element.
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11. An ultrasonic therapeutic device, comprising a flexible substrate material adapted for retained application to a part of a living body, said substrate material having an inner face carrying two or more piezoelectric transducer elements in spaced array, an impedance matching layer bonded to each of said elements for direct application to the body, said impedance-matching layer is an elongate strip, with said piezoelectric elements in spaced array along said strip, flexible conductor means associated individually with one to the exclusion of another of said elements for individually exciting said elements for irradiation into the body via said impedance-matching layer, the impedance of said impedance-matching layer being substantially that of soft living tissue, and a pressure-release layer covering the backside of each transducer element as well as the backside of said impedance-matching layer in spaces between adjacent transducer elements.
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12. An ultrasonic therapeutic device, comprising a flexible substrate material adapted for retained application to a part of a living body, said substrate material having an inner face carrying two or more piezoelectric transducer elements in spaced array, an impedance matching layer bonded to each of said elements for direct application to the body, flexible conductor means associated individually with one to the exclusion of another of said elements for individually exciting said elements for irradiation into the body via said impedance-matching layer, the impedance of said impedance-matching layer being substantially that of soft living tissue, said impedance-matching layer having (a) a flat surface in bonded relation to each transducer element and (b) an irradiating opposite surface having a separate convexly contoured profile in register with each individual transducer element.
Specification