Ultrasound energy delivery system and method
First Claim
1. A system for delivering energy to biological tissue, comprising:
- a catheter having distal and proximal ends;
an ultrasonic transducer adapted to transduce electrical energy into acoustic energy, the transducer having a characteristic frequency, the transducer mounted at the distal end of the catheter;
a power supply that provides electrical energy to the ultrasonic transducer at a selectable frequency;
a power transfer sensor coupled to the ultrasonic transducer that measures the response of the ultrasonic transducer to the power provided to it by the power supply, the sensor providing a power transfer signal;
a processor adapted to automatically control the power supply to vary the frequency of electrical energy applied to the transducer and to monitor the power transfer signal in response to the frequency variation to determine the characteristic frequency of the transducer.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An energy delivery system and method controls the frequency of the power driving an ultrasonic device to achieve more efficient power delivery. During operation of the ultrasonic device to deliver power to a patient site, the system and method automatically sweeps the drive power through a frequency range, locates the series and parallel resonance frequencies, calculates the average of those frequencies and locks the power generator at that average frequency to drive the crystal. This frequency sweep procedure occurs automatically when the ultrasonic crystal is located at the patient site and the power generator operator presses the power-on switch to apply power. The method of tuning the power generator thus occurs when the crystal is at the site temperature and is transparent to the operator. The application of an external bio-layer to the crystal increases its bandwidth and its robustness. Mounting a temperature sensor or sensors at the crystal permits monitoring of the crystal temperature and allows drive level control over the power generator to control the temperature at the crystal.
577 Citations
32 Claims
-
1. A system for delivering energy to biological tissue, comprising:
-
a catheter having distal and proximal ends; an ultrasonic transducer adapted to transduce electrical energy into acoustic energy, the transducer having a characteristic frequency, the transducer mounted at the distal end of the catheter; a power supply that provides electrical energy to the ultrasonic transducer at a selectable frequency; a power transfer sensor coupled to the ultrasonic transducer that measures the response of the ultrasonic transducer to the power provided to it by the power supply, the sensor providing a power transfer signal; a processor adapted to automatically control the power supply to vary the frequency of electrical energy applied to the transducer and to monitor the power transfer signal in response to the frequency variation to determine the characteristic frequency of the transducer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method of delivering energy to a biological site, comprising the steps of:
-
locating a catheter having an ultrasonic transducer at the site; applying electrical power to the ultrasonic transducer that is adapted to transduce electrical energy into acoustic energy, the transducer having a characteristic frequency; measuring the response of the ultrasonic transducer to the power provided to it, the sensor providing a power transfer signal; automatically varying the frequency of electrical energy applied to the transducer and monitoring the power transfer signal in response to the frequency variation to determine the characteristic frequency of the transducer. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
-
Specification