Gel Pad with Stiffness Gradient for Ultrasound Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Ultrasound scanning on irregularly shaped body surfaces is challenging due to air gaps and poor acoustic coupling, leading to inaccurate images and erroneous medical diagnoses, as conventional gel pads are not designed for complex skin geometries.
Innovation Solution
A gel pad with a deformable surface featuring a stiffness gradient and position markers, allowing it to conform to non-uniform skin shapes and facilitate smooth movement of the ultrasound transducer, while reducing the need for excessive ultrasound gel.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a large amount of ultrasound gel is used to fill gaps on irregular body surfaces, then acoustic coupling between transducer and skin is improved, but the complexity of operation increases and gel must be frequently replenished
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a gel pad as an intermediary device between the ultrasound transducer and the skin surface. This gel pad is pre-filled with ultrasound gel and has a deformable structure that conforms to irregular body surfaces, eliminating the need for operators to manually apply and replenish gel during scanning. The gel pad maintains consistent acoustic coupling while simplifying the scanning operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The gel pad is prepared in advance with the appropriate amount of ultrasound gel and deformable structure before use. This preliminary preparation eliminates the need for operators to repeatedly add gel during the scanning process, reducing operational complexity and ensuring consistent acoustic coupling throughout the examination.
2Ease of manufacture
If regular-shaped gel pads with uniform thickness are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but they cannot conform to irregularly shaped skin surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a gel pad with a deformable, flexible structure that can conform to irregular skin surfaces. The gel pad is designed with non-uniform thickness and flexible materials that allow it to adapt to complex body geometries while maintaining acoustic coupling. This flexible design enables the gel pad to bridge gaps and contours that rigid or uniformly thick pads cannot accommodate.
Solution Approach 2:
The gel pad features non-uniform thickness distribution with varying local properties. Thicker regions are positioned to fill gaps on irregular surfaces, while thinner regions provide appropriate contact pressure. This local variation in geometry and material properties enables the gel pad to conform to specific surface irregularities while maintaining overall structural integrity.
3Reliability
If the gel pad surface is made highly deformable to fit skin contours, then acoustic coupling is improved, but the transducer cannot move smoothly on the surface
Solution Approach 1:
The gel pad incorporates spatially varying stiffness properties, with softer, more deformable regions at the contact interface with the skin to ensure conformability and acoustic coupling, and firmer, less deformable regions at the top surface to provide a smooth, low-friction interface for transducer movement. This gradient in mechanical properties resolves the contradiction between deformability and smoothness.
Solution Approach 2:
The gel pad utilizes composite material construction with different material layers or regions having distinct mechanical properties. The composite structure combines materials with high deformability for skin contact with materials providing low friction for transducer sliding, enabling both conformability and smooth movement simultaneously.
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 gel pad ensures direct contact between the ultrasound transducer and skin, minimizing air gaps and improving image accuracy, enabling clear ultrasound images and precise medical diagnostics.
Implementation Method 1
The ultrasound gel enables the ultrasound to be transmitted efficiently into the body for scanning the body tissues
Implementation Method 2
a second surface being more bendable than the first surface for contacting the skin surface. The second surface is capable of conforming to a non-uniform shape of the skin surface
Data Source
AI summary
A gel pad for facilitating ultrasound scanning between an ultrasound transducer and a skin surface is provided. The gel pad has a first surface being bendable with a small degree and maintained locally flat, and a second surface being more bendable than the first surface for contacting the skin surface. A coupling media is arranged between the first and second surface with a stiffness gradient increasing from the second surface to the first surface. The first surface is capable of facilitating the ultrasound transducer to move swiftly on the gel pad. The second surface is capable of conforming to a non-uniform shape of the skin surface. On the first or second surface, position markers are provided for determining coordinates of the ultrasound transducer, by blocking ultrasound signals from transmitting through the gel pad to generate dark strips or marks in the ultrasound images.