DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF HIGH-INTENSITY FOCUSED ULTRASOUND PHASED ARRAY FOR LIVER TUMOR THERAPY

Noninvasive surgery of the liver tumors has been carried out by using the high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). However, the liver tumor can be moved by the human respirations and heartbeats, which may cause the ablation and damage of normal tissues during the sonications of HIFU. The purpose of this study was to design and fabricate a cylindrical HIFU phased array transducer for treating the moving liver tumor efficiently. The total number of the element was 512 but only 256 channels were required since the elements along the elevation direction were connected in pairs with respect to the central line of the array. Field II software was used to simulate the acoustic field, and a formula for predicting the spatial averaged intensity at focus was developed based on the practical factors. The results of the simulations showed that the cylindrical HIFU phased array in water had a dynamic focusing range from 145 to 175 mm in the depth direction and a steering range from -15 to 15 mm in azimuthal direction with respect to the center of the array. After the dissipation of cables and the attenuation of various media, the designed array could still generate the intensity at focus up to 1095 W/cm2 when the input electrical power was approximately 410 W. The prototype of the array was fabricated and the preliminary test was completed. The testing results showed that each element of the array prototype can work well.