Man-portable optical ablation system

• US 7,361,171 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2004
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rayd LLC
• Original Assignee: Raydiance, Inc. (Coherent Corp.)
• Inventors: Stoltz, Richard, Bullington, Jeff
• Primary Examiner(s): FARAH, AHMED M
• Application Number:
  US10/916,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20050171516A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,350 Days
• Field of Search: 606 3- 12, 606/88, 606/89, 128/898, 216/65, 216/66, 216/87, 359/333, 359342- 3
• 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 from a body using a short optical pulse that is amplified and then compressed, comprising the steps of:

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

amplifying the initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse using an optical amplifier, to generate an amplified pulse;

compressing the amplified pulse within a man-portable system, to generate a compressed optical pulse, wherein the amplification and compression are performed using either an optically-pumped-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination, or a semiconductor optical amplifier and chirped fiber compressor combination; and

applying the compressed optical pulse to the body, wherein the pulse generation, amplification and compression are performed within the man-portable system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein more than one optical amplifiers are operated in a train mode to amplify the wavelength-swept-with-time pulse.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the compressed optical pulse is applied to a surface of the body as a circular spot having a diameter between about 10 and about 50 microns.

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 steps are performed using a fiber-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination, and

the initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse has a duration of 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 comprises a Treacy grating compressor.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein more than one fiber-amplifiers are operated in a train mode, and pulses from the more than one fiber-amplifiers are compressed using the air-path between gratings compressor.

10. A method of ablative material removal from a surface of a body, comprising the steps of:

generating an initial pulse in a pulse generator;

amplifying the initial pulse using an amplifier comprising either an optically-pumped-amplifier or a semiconductor optical amplifier within a man-portable system, to generate an amplified pulse;

compressing the amplified pulse within the man-portable system using a compressor, to generate a compressed optical pulse having a duration of one picosecond or less; and

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

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the amplifying and compressing steps are performed using a fiber-amplifier and an air-path between gratings compressor combination.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the fiber-amplifier comprises an erbium-doped fiber amplifier.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the air-path between gratings compressor comprises a Treacy grating compressor.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the compressing step is performed using a chirped fiber compressor.

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

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

17. The method of claim 10, wherein more than one amplifiers are used in a train mode to amplify the initial pulse.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein amplified pulses from more than one fiber-amplifiers are compressed using the compressor.

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

20. The method of claim 10, wherein pulse energy density, fiber-amplifier operating temperature, and ablation rate are independently controlled.

21. A system for surgical ablative material removal from a body using a short optical pulse that is amplified and then compressed, comprising:

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

means for amplifying the initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse using an optical amplifier, to generate an amplified pulse;

means for compressing the amplified pulse within a man-portable system to generate a compressed optical pulse, wherein the amplification and compression are performed using either an optically-pumped-amplifier and air-path between gratings compressor combination, or a semiconductor optical amplifier and chirped fiber compressor combination; and

means for applying the compressed optical pulse to the body, wherein the pulse generation, amplification and compression are performed within the man-portable system.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the means, for amplifying the initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse includes more than one optical amplifier configured to be operated in a train mode to amplify the wavelength-swept-with-time pulse.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the means for compressing the amplified pulse are configured to compress pulses from more than one fiber-amplifier.

24. system of claim 21, wherein the means for amplifying the initial wavelength-swept-with-time pulse is configured to independently control pulse energy density and ablation rate.