Development of a High Frequency Forward-looking Phased-array Transducer in Guiding Interventional Procedures

Ultrasound-guided interventional puncture and therapy are increasingly being used in the clinic. At present, the low frequency (1–5 MHz) ultrasound probes are usually placed at the patient's body surface for guiding interventional procedures, leading to several drawbacks such as low-resolution images of the internal organs, hard to achieve precise punctures. Furthermore, the interventional device such as an introducer needle is often separate from the ultrasound probe, which causes additional damage to the patients. Therefore, in this work, a miniaturized high frequency phased-array transducer placed on the front top of intervention device with a working channel is developed, which is mainly consisted of 48 elements and one working channel. The center frequency is measured about 24 MHz, and the −6 dB bandwidth is around 61%. The axial imaging resolution and lateral resolution can be calculated as 88 and 278 µmbased on phantom image. And a single transmit focus at 6 mm was achieved by delay-and-sum beamforming. The performance of the proposed phased-array transducer demonstrates the feasibility of such an approach for interventional guidance.