TREATMENT OF SKIN WITH ACOUSTIC ENERGY

摘要

Methods and apparatus (10) are disclosed for applying acoustic energy (21) to the skin (12) whereby the wavefront can be controlled to confine the focused energy to a desired subsurface region. Acoustic waveguides (26) are disclosed which compensate for distortions that otherwise occur when a focused acoustic beam crosses a boundary, such as the transition from a treatment device to a target region of skin. The invention is especially useful with devices that focus ultrasound energy by condensing a propagating wavefront . The invention compensates for the mismatch in acoustic properties of the device's waveguide and the biological tissue that typically cause portions of the collapsing wavefront to lag behind other portions and, thereby, limit the focusing capabilities of acoustic treatment devices .