Systems and methods for reducing secondary hot spots in a phased array focused ultrasound system
First Claim
1. A system for performing a therapeutic procedure in a target tissue region of a patient using focused ultrasound within a primary focal zone, comprising:
- an array of transducer elements;
drive circuitry coupled to the transducer elements, the drive circuitry configured to provide respective drive signals to the transducer elements of at least first, second, and third discrete frequencies; and
a controller coupled to the drive circuitry, the controller configured for periodically changing the frequency of the respective drive signals provided by the drive circuitry between at least the first, second, and third frequencies while substantially maintaining focus at the primary focal zone during a single, substantially continuous, sonication, the controller changing the frequency less than once every 50 milliseconds.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System and methods for performing a therapeutic procedure using focused ultrasound include providing a piezoelectric transducer including a plurality of transducer elements, such as a concave concentric ring array or a liner array of transducer elements. Drive circuitry is coupled to the transducer for providing drive signals to the transducer elements at one of a plurality of discrete RF frequencies. A controller is coupled to the drive circuitry for periodically changing a frequency of the drive signals to one of the plurality of discrete frequencies, while controlling a phase component of the drive signals to maintain the focus of the transducer at a primary focal zone during a single sonication.
512 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A system for performing a therapeutic procedure in a target tissue region of a patient using focused ultrasound within a primary focal zone, comprising:
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an array of transducer elements;
drive circuitry coupled to the transducer elements, the drive circuitry configured to provide respective drive signals to the transducer elements of at least first, second, and third discrete frequencies; and
a controller coupled to the drive circuitry, the controller configured for periodically changing the frequency of the respective drive signals provided by the drive circuitry between at least the first, second, and third frequencies while substantially maintaining focus at the primary focal zone during a single, substantially continuous, sonication, the controller changing the frequency less than once every 50 milliseconds. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method for performing a therapeutic procedure in a target tissue region of a patient using focused ultrasound, the method comprising:
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driving a plurality of transducer elements with a set of respective drive signals at a first discrete frequency, while focusing ultrasonic energy produced by the transducer elements at a primary focal zone within the target tissue region and creating a secondary focal zone at a location outside the primary focal zone; and
changing the frequency of the respective drive signals to a second discrete frequency, while substantially maintaining the focus at the primary focal zone and moving the secondary focal zone to another location outside the primary focal zone;
wherein the frequency is changed less than once every 50 ms.- View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for performing a therapeutic procedure in a target tissue region of a patient using focused ultrasound, the method comprising:
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driving a plurality of transducer elements with a first set of respective drive signals at a first frequency for longer than 50 ms, while focusing ultrasonic energy produced by the transducer elements substantially at a primary focal zone within the target tissue region and creating a secondary focal zone outside the primary focal zone; and
driving the plurality of transducer elements with a second set of respective drive signals at a second frequency for longer than 50 ms, while maintaining the focus of the ultrasonic energy produced by the transducer elements substantially at the primary focal zone and moving the secondary focal zone to another location outside the primary focal zone. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A system for performing a therapeutic procedure in a target tissue region of a patient using focused ultrasound within a primary focal zone, comprising:
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an array of transducer elements;
drive circuitry coupled to the transducer elements, the drive circuitry configured to provide respective drive signals to the transducer elements of at least first and second discrete frequencies; and
a controller coupled to the drive circuitry for periodically changing the frequency of the respective drive signals provided by the drive circuitry between at least the first and second frequencies while substantially maintaining focus at the primary focal zone, the controller maintaining the respective drive signals at the first frequency for at least 0.2 second before changing the respective drive signals to the second frequency. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification