Spark gap unit for lithotripsy

US5195508A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Dornier Medizintechnik GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Michael Muller · Bexbach, DE
• Peter Buchbauer · Garching bei München, DE
• Harald Eizenhofer · Munich, DE
• Friedrich Ueberle · Gilching, DE
• Herbert Weiler · Gilching, DE
• Reiner Schultheiss · Kreuzlingen, CH

Key dates

• Filing date: May 17, 1991
• Grant date: Mar 23, 1993
• Expiry date: May 17, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G10K15/06
• WIPO field: Other consumer goods
• WIPO sector: Other fields

Abstract

A spark gap unit that is easy to manufacture and significantly lighter than previously used spark gap units for generating underwater shock waves, particularly for non-invasive lithotrispy, has an internal conductor with an inner electrode, an insulation which at least partially envelops the internal conductor, and an external conductor with a bow and an outer electrode. The internal conductor is significantly shorter than the external conductor, and the external conductor at the rearward end of the spark gap unit projects beyond the internal conductor. The internal conductor, the insulation, and the external conductor are coaxially arranged. An outside diameter of the internal conductor is relatively small in comparison to an inside diameter of the external conductor. The spark gap unit has a hollow space inside the insulation, this hollow space being open in the direction of a rearward end of the spark gap unit. In the opposite direction from the rearward end, the hollow space is bounded by the internal conductor itself and the envelopment of the internal conductor by the insulation.