A 3D time reversal cavity for the focusing of high-intensity ultrasound pulses over a large volume

Phys Med Biol. 2017 Feb 7;62(3):810-824. doi: 10.1088/1361-6560/aa52ab. Epub 2017 Jan 10.

Abstract

Shock wave ultrasound therapy techniques, increasingly used for non-invasive surgery, require extremely high pressure amplitudes in precise focal spots, and large high-power transducers arranged on a spherical shell are usually used to achieve that. This solution allows limited steering of the beam around the geometrical focus of the device at the cost of a large number of transducer elements, and the treatment of large and moving organs like the heart is challenging or impossible. This paper validates numerically and experimentally the possibility of using a time reversal cavity (TRC) for the same purpose. A 128-element, 1 MHz power transducer combined with different multiple scattering media in a TRC was used. We were able to focus high-power ultrasound pulses over a large volume in a controlled manner, with a limited number of transducer elements. We reached sufficiently high pressure amplitudes to erode an Ultracal® target over a 10 cm2 area.

MeSH terms

  • High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound Ablation / instrumentation*
  • Humans
  • Kidney / diagnostic imaging*
  • Kidney / radiation effects
  • Kidney / surgery
  • Lithotripsy
  • Phantoms, Imaging*
  • Pressure
  • Transducers*