The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 22, 1999
Filed:
Feb. 04, 1997
Mark A Maguire, San Jose, CA (US);
Hong Li, Cupertino, CA (US);
Joseph M Karratt, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Aurelio Valencia, East Palo Alto, CA (US);
Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MI (US);
Abstract
A catheter assembly (2) includes a catheter shaft (6) having a tip portion (10) with a hollow interior (30) and a linear ablation electrode (18, 34, 36, 44, 58) spaced apart from the distal end (22) of the tip portion. The electrode has an inner surface (28) which is effectively fluidly exposed to the hollow interior so that a cooling fluid (32) passing through the interior contacts the inner surface so to effectively cool the electrode. The electrode can include a series of band electrodes (18, 34) or one or more spiral electrodes (36, 44, 58). One method for making the tip portion involves mounting the electrode to a mandrel, filling the spaces between the edges (26) of the electrode with a polymer and then removing the resulting tubular structure from the mandrel. The cooling fluid can pass through a hollow spiral electrode (58) for enhanced cooling effectiveness.