Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

In 3D printing technologies, light and heat are the only energy sources used for printing parts with either photosensitive or heat-sensitive materials. Concordia recently developed a new printing technology with sound waves called Direct Sound Printing. This has remote printing capability to print parts beyond obstacles such as walls and skins while other 3D printing technologies cannot print parts beyond obstacles. Even though Concordia University houses various state-of-the-art research facilities, remote printing using ultrasound waves is currently limited due to the dire need for a synchronized ultrasound beam steering and focusing. This application plans to explore High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) turnkey system for remote printing and repair of biological materials inside the body from the outside, using sound waves. This proposed equipment will help demonstrate printing parts into the body from outside, in a synchronized manner between location of focus inside the body and actuator position outside of the body. The HIFU turnkey investigational system from Sonic Concepts with pulse generator, controller, and motorized rotary apparatus is an essential laboratory equipment for remote distance printing behind hidden and opaque obstacles. No similar equipment is available at Concordia or known partner institutions. Acquiring this equipment would not only advance collaboration between engineers, biologists and physicists for future convergence of remote in-body printing but would also sustain leading-edge research success, strengthen training goals, enhance quality of dissertations, and shorten graduation time of our team of around 25 graduate students and 5 postdocs. In addition to conducting cutting edge research, the equipment enables us to validate modeling and simulations. We believe that the collaboration of the labs of our team in multidisciplinary research and development around this equipment will lead to practical surgical and medical methods that have huge market and a few spin-off can be resulted from universities. The collaborations between research labs around this equipment with diverse expertise in acoustics, 3D printing, biology, head and neck surgery, cardio surgery would converge in the multidisciplinary research program of remote in-body printing. The proposed equipment will help develop a new trend in remote body printing. The requested equipment surmounts present obstacle by permitting synchronized electronic steering and focusing of high intensity ultrasound. Housed in the Optical-bio Microsystems Lab, the system will be open to on-site and other inter-institutional collaborations across Canada including McGill, UdeM, ETS and École Polytechnique. The success of this application is highly relevant to Canadian society and economy, as it will create sound based printing technology for medical as well as engineering applications, such as therapeutic applications, surgery, bioprinting, tissue repair and aerospace.