Deformable Surgical Tracker With Meandering Electrical Connection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional surgical navigation trackers face issues with deformation due to skin surface changes during surgery, leading to partial detachment and strain on electrical wiring, which impairs navigation and can cause the tracker to break.
Innovation Solution
A deformable tracker patch with a meandering electrical connection configuration that allows for stretchability and compressibility, ensuring the tracker remains attached and functional even when deformed, using materials like polyimide or polyurethane, and featuring a patch with a frame shape enclosing a central opening to accommodate movement and deformation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the tracker patch is made deformable to adapt to skin surface changes, then the tracker can maintain attachment on deforming skin, but the electrical wiring becomes strained and may break
Solution Approach 1:
The electrical connection transitions from a fixed rigid structure to a dynamic meandering configuration that can adapt its shape during patch deformation. The meandering pattern allows the wiring to stretch, fold, and reconfigure as the patch deforms, maintaining electrical connectivity while accommodating skin surface changes without breaking.
Solution Approach 2:
The electrical connection is implemented as a thin flexible conductive trace integrated into the deformable patch substrate. This thin film approach allows the wiring to bend and deform with the patch while maintaining structural integrity and electrical functionality throughout the deformation cycle.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the electrical wiring is fixedly attached to the patch, then electrical connection is stable, but the wiring prevents patch deformation and may break when strained
Solution Approach 1:
The electrical connection adopts a meandering geometry that dynamically adjusts during patch deformation. Rather than resisting deformation, the meandering pattern flows and reconfigures as the patch deforms, maintaining stable electrical contact between components while enabling full patch deformability.
Solution Approach 2:
The electrical connection uses curved meandering paths instead of straight lines. These curved pathways provide geometric flexibility, allowing the wiring to accommodate patch deformation through bending and folding while maintaining continuous electrical connectivity throughout the deformation process.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the tracker patch deforms during surgery, then it can follow skin movement, but surgical navigation is impaired due to partial detachment
Solution Approach 1:
The tracker patch is constructed as a thin flexible film that can conform to and deform with the skin surface. This flexibility allows the patch to maintain intimate contact with the skin during movement and deformation, preventing partial detachment while continuously tracking skin position and orientation for accurate surgical navigation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patch material properties are designed to match the mechanical characteristics of skin, allowing the patch to undergo similar deformations. By changing the physical state and flexibility parameters of the patch material, it can adapt to skin movement while maintaining its functional integrity and tracking accuracy throughout the surgical procedure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The tracker maintains accurate tracking and prevents electrical connection breakage during deformation, ensuring continuous navigation without the need for re-setting, by using a meandering electrical connection that stretches and folds with the patch, thus enhancing surgical navigation system reliability.
Implementation Method 1
a deformable tracker patch with a meandering electrical connection configuration that allows for stretchability and compressibility
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 2A~2F
AI summary
A tracker for surgical navigation is described. The tracker comprises a patch being at least one of stretchable and compressible in at least one direction. At least a part of the patch has the shape of a frame enclosing a central opening. The tracker further comprises a tracker element selected from a light source or a coil, the tracker element being supported by the patch. Moreover, the tracker further comprises an electrical connection electrically coupled to the tracker element and supported by the patch, the electrical connection having a meandering configuration along the direction in which the patch is deformable.