Multi-functional Active Catheter

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Active catheters which can move in a blood vessel and reach some part in a body(for example inside a brain) have been developed for the purpose of diagnosis and therapy in a blood vessel. Micromachining based on a semiconductor micro fabrication has been applied for their fabrication. Many actuators made of shape memory alloy(SMA) coil rare distributed in the active catheter and hence it can bend flexibly like a snake. Sensors for the catheters have been developed as well.Active catheters(2.3 mm in outer diameter) having integrated circuits for communication and control and hence needs only three common lead wires have been developed. Multi-functional active catheters( 1.4 mm in outer diameter) which can not only bend but also extend and twist have been also developed. The Multi-functional active catheters have been fabricated in batch process using electroplating and other processes. Furthermore active guide wires(0.5 mm in outer diameter) have been fabricated using etched thin SMApla … More te. Thin outer tube having liner coil was fabricated for the active catheter.Sensors for the active catheters have been developed. One is a forward looking ultrasound imager (3 mm in outer diameter)at the end of the active catheter to assist their navigation. Thermal micro relay as a multiplexer for the transmitting ultrasonic pulse has been developed. Micromachining of a piezoelectric material(PZT) has been studied. Silicon lost mold process for the PZT which uses micromachined silicon as a mold for sintering was developed and achieved piezoelectric characteristics successfully.Fiber optic fine(125 μm in outer diameter) pressure sensor which has a thin diaphragm at the end of a optical fiber was fabricated by applying silicon deep reactive ion etching(RIE). Three axis magnetic field sensor was fabricated at the end of en active catheter was fabricated to know the position and the direction of the catheter tip in the body.Laser assisted chemical vapor deposition(CVD) using ultraviolet CW laser was developed for micro assembly and selective metalization. These research results presented in a conference for the therapy inside brain blood vessel were highly evaluated by medical doctors. Less