US 12,458,330 B2
Steerable biopsy needle with fiber-activated shape memory alloy
Seok Chang Ryu, College Station, TX (US); Richard J. Black, Menlo Park, CA (US); and Behzad Moslehi, Los Altos, CA (US)
Assigned to Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corporation, Fremont, CA (US)
Filed by Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corporation, San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 9, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/226,085.
Application 17/226,085 is a continuation of application No. 15/626,540, filed on Jun. 19, 2017, granted, now 11,000,265.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/352,447, filed on Jun. 20, 2016.
Prior Publication US 2021/0219966 A1, Jul. 22, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. A61B 10/02 (2006.01); A61B 34/20 (2016.01)
CPC A61B 10/0233 (2013.01) [A61B 34/20 (2016.02); A61B 2034/2055 (2016.02); A61B 2034/2061 (2016.02)] 23 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A biopsy needle having an outer sleeve cannula enclosing an outer stylet and an inner stylet;
the outer stylet having a plurality of slots which are perpendicular to a central axis of the outer stylet, the slots formed above and below a medial plane on said central axis, each slot starting from a first edge of the outer stylet to a terminus which is closer to the medial plane than to a second edge opposite the first edge, the terminus of each slot forming a slot axis of rotation which is closer to the medial plane than the first edge or the second edge, the plurality of slots thereby constraining a deflection of the outer stylet to be within a single plane which is on the central axis and perpendicular to the medial plane, the plurality of slots forming a deflection extent along the central axis, the outer stylet further comprising:
a base portion; the deflection extent; and an asymmetric tip;
the inner stylet comprising:
a plurality of cylindrical Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) tubes, at least one cylindrical SMA tube having a first end attached to one end of the outer stylet deflection extent, and a second end attached to an opposite end of the outer stylet deflection extent, the at least one cylindrical SMA tube placed on at least one side of the medial plane, thereby spanning said outer stylet deflection extent;
at least one actuation optical fiber coupling optical energy to the at least one cylindrical SMA tube wherein the at least one actuation optical fiber is placed inside the at least one cylindrical SMA tube, and the at least one actuation optical fiber is coaxial with the at least one cylindrical SMA tube and configured to couple the optical energy to the at least one cylindrical SMA tube in an extent exclusively within the deflection extent;
at least one optical fiber for measuring a temperature; and
at least one optical fiber for measuring a deflection;
whereby the needle is steerable through tissue by a combination of compressive axial force combined with rotation about the central axis and application of optical energy in a wavelength range of 800 nm to 2500 nm to the at least one actuation optical fiber, and the outer sleeve cannula, outer stylet, and inner stylet do not generate a ferromagnetic response to a magnetic field.