High-Voltage Electrode Connectors With Clearance Structures
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a need for electrodes to deliver nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) generated by a pulse generator to patients with minimal distortion and maximum utility and safety, particularly for treating internal cancerous tumors.
Innovation Solution
The development of high voltage electrodes and connectors that include insulative structures to provide minimum clearance distances between conductive terminals and a user, ensuring safety and effective delivery of nsPEFs, along with adjustable terminal lengths and circuitry to count and store pulse numbers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If high voltage connectors and electrodes are designed to deliver nsPEFs with high peak voltages (10-500 kV/cm), then the therapeutic effectiveness is improved, but the safety risk and potential for electrical discharge increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces insulative structures (insulative boss, insulative tip housing, insulative handle housing) as intermediary elements between the high voltage conductive terminals and the user. These insulative intermediaries provide physical isolation and electrical insulation, allowing the system to maintain high peak voltages (10-500 kV/cm) for therapeutic effectiveness while preventing direct contact that would create safety risks or electrical discharge hazards.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent addresses the safety issue not by reducing voltage magnitude but by adding a spatial dimension - minimum clearance distances. The insulative structures create physical separation (clearance distances) between conductive terminals and user-accessible areas, transforming the safety problem from an electrical field interaction to a spatial isolation problem that can be solved structurally.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If insulative structures are added to provide minimum clearance distances between conductive terminals and user, then safety is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the insulative structures (insulative boss, insulative tip housing, insulative handle housing) with the existing structural components of the electrode assembly. Rather than adding separate, independent safety devices, the insulative elements are integrated into the housing and structural framework, providing both mechanical support and electrical insulation functions simultaneously, thereby minimizing the increase in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The insulative structures serve multiple functions: they provide electrical insulation between high voltage terminals and users, maintain minimum clearance distances for safety, and simultaneously serve as structural housing components (tip housing, handle housing). This multi-functionality reduces the need for additional separate components, thereby limiting the increase in device complexity while achieving enhanced safety.
3Ease of operation
If the electrode is designed for percutaneous use with external placement, then ease of operation is improved, but the ability to treat internal tumors is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the electrode configuration dynamic and adaptable by providing both percutaneous electrode assemblies (with external placement and insulative structures) and internal electrode assemblies (with insulated conductive elements suitable for insertion into body cavities or tissues). This dynamic design allows the same basic electrode system to be configured differently based on the treatment requirement, maintaining ease of operation for percutaneous use while enabling treatment of internal tumors through appropriate internal electrode configurations.
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 electrodes ensure safe and effective delivery of nsPEFs to patients, inducing apoptosis in cancerous tumors while minimizing impact on normal cells, and stimulating an immune response against residual tumors.
Implementation Method 1
insulative structures to provide minimum clearance distances between conductive terminals and a user
Implementation Method 2
A 'nanosecond pulsed electric field,' sometimes abbreviated as nsPEF, includes an electric field with a sub-microsecond pulse width of between 0.1 nanoseconds (ns) and 1000 nanoseconds
Data Source
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AI summary
A handheld, therapeutic electrode and connector that are compatible with high voltages from a pulse generator are disclosed. The electrode includes therapeutic terminals on a tip configured to deliver high voltage pulses safely to a patient. The electrode includes sleeves, bosses, wiring channels, and other features that maximize a minimum clearance distance (across non-conductive surfaces) and air clearance between conductive connectors themselves or the connectors and a user, thus preventing dangerous arcing. Internal surfaces and seams are taken into account. The connector and its mating outlet can include similar features to maximize clearance distance. Skirts, skirt holes, and finger stops are also employed, and they can be on either the connector or outlet, or the tip or handle of the electrode.