Histotripsy systems and methods

A method of providing ultrasound therapy, comprising:

• moving an ultrasound transducer array of an ultrasound system along an approach plane to place a focus of the ultrasound transducer array on a target treatment location within a treatment volume of a subject;
• determining an aperture width of the ultrasound transducer array in the approach plane at a depth of an acoustic window;
• determining a tilt angle that centers an acoustic beam of the ultrasound transducer array on the selected acoustic window while placing the focus of the ultrasound transducer array on the target treatment location;
• controlling movement of the ultrasound transducer with a robotic positioning system along the approach plane to assume the tilt angle that places the focus on the target treatment location and centers the acoustic beam on the selected acoustic window;
• and
• delivering ultrasound therapy to the target treatment location with the ultrasound transducer array.

An ultrasound system, comprising:

• a robotic positioning system;
• an ultrasound transducer array disposed on the robotic positioning system, the ultrasound transducer array being configured to deliver ultrasound pulses into a subject;
• one or more processors operatively coupled to the robotic positioning system and the ultrasound transducer array;
• a non-transitory computing device readable medium having instructions stored thereon for generating a treatment plan for ultrasound therapy, wherein the instructions are executable by the one or more processors to cause the ultrasound system to:
• move the ultrasound transducer array along an approach plane to place a focus of the ultrasound transducer array on a target treatment location within a treatment volume of the subject;
• determine an aperture width of the ultrasound transducer array in the approach plane at a depth of an acoustic window;
• and
• determine a tilt angle of the ultrasound transducer array that centers an acoustic beam of the ultrasound transducer array on the acoustic window while placing the focus of the ultrasound transducer array on the target treatment location.