Part 2: Designing Piezo Handpieces for Ultrasonic Surgery

Ultrasonic handpieces are being used with growing frequency in medical applications, for example, with minimally invasive surgical procedures and in dentistry. These instruments, which include ultrasonic scalpels, phaco handpieces, and scalers, use acoustic waves to facilitate the processing of hard or soft tissue. Part 1 of this article, which ran in March 2023, looked at the general structure, design variants, and system design of ultrasonic medical handpieces. Part 2 now reviews driver design, special applications, drive electronics, and failure mechanisms.