Medical Devices

We are developing medical devices that interact with ultrasound. For example, we are developing our SoniCam technology that uses ultrasound as a communication channel to stream high definition images to an external receiver. We are also developing radiological breast clips that have ultrasound identification (USID), similar to RFID. Currently, radiological clips are used to tag tumors or involved lymph nodes in breast cancer patients for later surgical resection and chemotherapy. These clips can become invisible to ultrasound. Also, multiple clips of different shapes and sizes are used to mark different lesions and affected nodes. We are developing clips that are active, instead of passive, that provide a unique signal that allows better visibility and a unique identifier number. Ultrasound can be used to localize the clips and work with surgeons to remove tagged tissues. Figures 1, 2, and 3 shows our clip designs and videos of our initial prototype. Currently, we are designing small ASICs to miniaturize the clips and reduce power requirements.

Figure 1. Illustration of our radiological clip.
Figure 2. B-mode image of clip in a phantom and pulse-inversion image that eliminates the tissue signal and leaves only the clip signal.

Figure 3. Video of B-mode image of a phantom with an embedded clip and the clip tag as the array transducer is held over the phantom.