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Miniature ultrasonic probe construction for minimal access surgery

R J Dickinson1 and R I Kitney

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The increasing use of minimal access techniques for surgery has produced a need for imaging technologies that can be used during such interventions. Ultrasound imaging has the advantage that the probe itself can be interventional. Interventional ultrasound probes must be sufficiently small to gain access to the surgical site, and any rigid portion must be limited in length to permit adequate flexibility. In practice this means the ultrasound probes have to operate at high frequencies, and a set of design curves have been produced which relate the number of elements and the ultrasound frequency to the probe dimensions for both linear and cylindrical array configurations. Constructing high-frequency sub-miniature probes presents a number of technical challenges, in particular relating to interconnects and packaging. Solutions to these challenges are discussed using the fabrication of a 1 mm diameter intravascular probe as an example.


PACS

87.63.D- Ultrasonography

43.38.+n Transduction; acoustical devices for the generation and reproduction of sound

87.80.-y Biophysical techniques (research methods)

Subjects

Instrumentation and measurement

Biological physics

Medical physics

Dates

Issue 16 (21 August 2004)

Received 2 April 2004

Published 2 August 2004



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