Multi-modal transducer-waveguide construct coupled to a medical needle

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel waveguide construct that efficiently couples ultrasound waves to medical needles, enhancing their functionality for medical procedures with high efficiency and small size.

Contribution

The study presents a new waveguide design that converts longitudinal to flexural waves and couples them to needles, improving ultrasound integration in medical devices.

Findings

Flexural tip displacement up to 200 μm at 30 kHz

Electrical-to-acoustic efficiency of up to 69%

Low power consumption under 5 W

Abstract

Annually, more than 16 billion medical needles are consumed worldwide. However, the functions of the medical needle are still limited to cutting and delivering or drawing material through the needle to a target site. Ultrasound combined with hypodermic needle could potentially add value to many medical applications such as pain reduction, adding precision, deflection reduction in tissues and even improve tissue collection. In this study we introduce a waveguide construct enabling an efficient way to convert a longitudinal wave mode to flexural mode and to couple the converted wave mode to a conventional medial needle, while maintaining high electric-to-acoustic power efficiency. The structural optimization of the waveguide was realized in silico using the finite element method followed by prototyping the construct and experimental characterization of the prototypes. The experiments at 30 kHz demonstrate flexural tip displacement up to 200 {\mu}m, at low electrical power consumption (under 5 W), with up to 69% of efficiency. The high electric-to-acoustic efficiency and small size of the transducer would facilitate design of medical needle and biopsy devices, potentially enabling portability, batterization and high patient safety with low electric powers.