New piezocrystal material in the development of a 96-element array transducer for MR-guided focused ultrasound surgery

Piezocrystal materials have been recognized as having better performance than piezoelectric ceramics, and have thus been widely adopted in ultrasound imaging arrays. Although their behaviour is susceptible to temperature and pressure, their large electromechanical coupling coefficients and other excellent piezoelectric properties also offer the potential for further improvements in the efficiency of therapeutic ultrasound transducers. Furthermore, new piezocrystals with modified compositions have been developed recently to increase their tolerance to temperature and pressure. In this work, a prototype of faceted bowl transducer was designed and manufactured as a proof of concept to explore practical issues associated with adoption of piezocrystals for magnetic resonance imaging guided focused ultrasound surgery