Investigation of Standing-Wave Formation in a Human Skull for a Clinical Prototype of a Large-Aperture, Transcranial MR-Guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) Phased Array: An Experimental and Simulation Study

Standing-wave formation in an ex vivo human skull was investigated using a clinical prototype of a 30-cm diameter with 15-cm radius of curvature, low-frequency (230 kHz), hemispherical transcranial magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound phased array. Experimental and simulation studies were conducted with changing aperture size and f-number configurations of the phased array and qualitatively and quantitatively examined the acoustic pressure variation at the focus due to standing waves. The results demonstrated that the nodes and antinodes of standing wave produced by the small-aperture array were clearly seen at approximately every 3 mm. The effect of the standing wave became more pronounced as the focus was moved closer to skull base. However, a sharp focus was seen for the full array, and there was no such standing-wave pattern in the acoustic plane or near the skull base. This study showed that the fluctuation pressure amplitude would be greatly reduced by using a large-scale, hemispherical phased array with a low f-number.