1I-6 Characterization of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound Fields with a High Spatio-Temporal Resolution

The accurate characterization of high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) fields is important for the prediction of thermal and mechanical bio-effects in tissue, as well as for the development of standards for therapeutic systems. At HIFU intensity levels, the combined effects of nonlinearity and diffraction result in the formation of asymmetric shocked waveforms and a corresponding distortion of the spatial distributions of various acoustic parameters that are responsible for different bio-effects. Acoustic probes that are capable of withstanding high pressures and that can measure waveforms with a high spatial and temporal resolution are required to capture the shock fronts and highly localized field structures that can arise at therapeutically relevant treatment regimes. An experimentally validated numerical model can also be an effective tool when direct measurements are not possible. In this work, acoustic measurements using force balance, acoustic holography, broadband fiber optic and PVDF hydrophones, were combined with simulations based on a KZK-type model to demonstrate an effective approach for the calibration of HIFU transducers in water and for derating these results to tissue