University College London

Ucl Business Plc

Paul Beard

Ben Cox

Timothy Noel Mills

David T Delpy

Ioannis Papakonstantinou

Malcolm Finlay

Adrien Desjardins

Marta Betcke

Simon Arridge

Edward Zhang

Edward Zhiyi Zhang

James Guggenheim

Nam Trung Huynh

A method of forming a vapour deposited polymeric conformal coating on a surface of a part (). The method comprises placing the part () and a flow control screen in a deposition chamber (); dispersing a gas into the chamber () from which the polymeric coating is deposited on the surface. The flow control screen is spaced apart from the surface and is configured to control a localised flow of the gas in the chamber so as to impose a structure on the deposited coating.

Methods and apparatuses for fabricating polymeric conformal coatings, parts coated with polymeric conformal coatings, and optical apparatus including said parts

Provided herein is a probe for ultrasound imaging of tissue. The probe comprises an optical relay having an optically absorbing coating at the distal end of the probe for generating ultrasound from excitation light via the photoacoustic effect, wherein the generated ultrasound propagates as an ultrasound beam into the tissue; and an ultrasound receiver separate from the optical relay. The optical relay is configured to receive as input a time-varying spatial pattern of excitation light at the proximal end of the probe and to transmit the excitation light to the distal end of the probe to illuminate the optically absorbing coating in accordance with said time-varying spatial pattern, thereby generating ultrasound from the excitation light via the photoacoustic effect to propagate as a scanning ultrasound beam into the tissue. The ultrasound receiver is configured to receive reflections of the ultrasound from tissue. Such an ultrasound probe may be incorporated, for example, into a transseptal puncture needle.

Ultrasound probe

An interferometer sensor has a two-dimensional sensor head () comprising a polymer film () of substantially uniform thickness. An interrogating signal () is provided to the sensor head, the interrogation signal extending across the area of the sensor head and being incident normally to the sensor head (). An optical sensing device () is arranged to receive an optical output signal from the sensor head at a location remote from the sensor head. The sensor converts ultrasound signals appearing over a two dimensional surface to an optical signal pattern, using a polymer interferometer sensing film. Spatial discretisation of the ultrasound signal pattern is performed by an optical sensing device. Such optical devices can be arranged having sufficiently high resolution to enable beam-steering imaging to be performed, including imaging outside the footprint of the sensor head.

Optical interferometer sensor array

A probe comprises an excitation source and a double-core optical fiber. A pulsed laser signal () of the excitation sources supplied to the outer core () at one end of the optical fiber. The other end is provided with an interferometer film (). An excitation signal () produced in the sample () modulates the thickness of the film (). This provides an interferometer signal () detected from the inner core ().

Optical fibre probe for photoacoustic material analysis

A method of forming an interferometer film for an interferometer sensor comprises forming a parylene polymer layer ( ) of substantially uniform thickness directly on an interferometer substrate ( ), the layer forming the interferometer film. Since the interferometer film ( ) formed directly onto the surface of the interferometer substrate, there is improved conformity between the two surfaces at the interface between the polymer layer and the substrate and improved uniformity in the thickness of the film.

Fabrication of fabry-perot polymer film sensing interferometers

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Paul Beard