Abstract
The correction of transcranial focused ultrasound aberrations is a relevant topic for enhancing various non-invasive medical treatments. Presently, the most widely accepted method to improve focusing is the emission through multi-element phased arrays; however, a new disruptive technology, based on 3D printed holographic acoustic lenses, has recently been proposed, overcoming the spatial limitations of phased arrays due to the submillimetric precision of the latest generation of 3D printers. This work aims to optimize this recent solution. Particularly, the preferred acoustic properties of the polymers used for printing the lenses are systematically analyzed, paying special attention to the effect of p-wave speed and its relationship to the achievable voxel size of 3D printers. Results from simulations and experiments clearly show that, given a particular voxel size, there are optimal ranges for lens thickness and p-wave speed, fairly independent of the emitted frequency, the transducer aperture, or the transducer-target distance.
Highlights
Holography is a technique to reconstruct wave fields from the previous recording of their complete amplitude and phase information
An ambit in which precise holographic reconstruction of acoustic fields has been gaining importance in recent years is in focused ultrasound for medical applications (FUS), mainly in non-invasive treatments where the ultrasound propagates through tissues with very different acoustic impedances, as is the case of transcranial propagation [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
Given that the nominal thickness is inversely proportional to the frequency, we found that the optimal material for this experiment, among those presented in Table 1, was Standard Grey®, since it has a nominal thickness of 14 voxels for this frequency and can be printed by stereolithography (SLA) that provides more homogeneity and isotropy than the fused deposition modeling (FDM) [42]
Summary
Holography is a technique to reconstruct wave fields from the previous recording of their complete amplitude and phase information. Optical holograms have been widely developed in many scientific, technological, and even artistic applications; acoustic holograms have been notably less applied to interest cases. An ambit in which precise holographic reconstruction of acoustic fields has been gaining importance in recent years is in focused ultrasound for medical applications (FUS), mainly in non-invasive treatments where the ultrasound propagates through tissues with very different acoustic impedances, as is the case of transcranial propagation [8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16].
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