SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DETECTING AND ALIGNING ACOUSTIC BEAM IN SITU TO A TARGET USING WIDE-BEAM, LOW FREQUENCY (<1 MHz) ULTRASOUND
AssigneeApplaud Medical, Inc.
InventorsWilliam Behnke-Parks, Daniel Laser
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to a novel target detecting device comprising an excitation transducer generating a low frequency pulses of weakly focused ultrasonic energy and a sensing transducer. The present invention also includes a method of aligning a treatment transducer to a target by mapping the target in situ by sending a low frequency ultrasound signal and receiving reflected signals from the target. These inventions provide a simpler way of determining the location of a target and aligning a treatment transducer without the need to generate and interpret an image and then translate the image back onto the target.
Claims20
A system for locating a target in situ comprising:
- an excitation transducer emitting pulses of ultrasonic energy waves having one or more frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 1 MHz, wherein an average wavelength of said ultrasonic energy waves is greater than a size of the target,
- wherein said ultrasonic energy waves are approximately collimated in a volume away from an aperture;
- and
- a sensing transducer receiving a component of the pulses of said ultrasonic energy waves emitted by said excitation transducer after reflection from the target,
- wherein said component of the pulses of said ultrasonic energy waves has an average wavelength greater than the size of the target and is related to a position of the target.
A method for locating a target smaller in situ, comprising the steps of:
- emitting pulses of ultrasonic energy waves having one or more frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 1 MHz by an excitation transducer, wherein an average wavelength of said ultrasonic energy waves is greater than a size of the target,
- wherein said ultrasonic energy waves are approximately collimated in a volume away from an aperture;
- and
- receiving, by a sensing transducer, a component of the pulses of the ultrasonic energy waves emitted by said excitation transducer after reflection from the target,
- wherein said component of the pulses of the ultrasonic energy waves has an average wavelength greater than the size of the target and is related to a position of the target.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.