The differing behavior of electrosurgical devices made of various electrode materials operating under plasma conditions

K. R. Stalder; T. P. Ryan; J. Gaspredes; J. Woloszko

doi:10.1117/12.2082740

11 March 2015 The differing behavior of electrosurgical devices made of various electrode materials operating under plasma conditions

K. R. Stalder, T. P. Ryan, J. Gaspredes, J. Woloszko

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Proceedings Volume 9326, Energy-based Treatment of Tissue and Assessment VIII; 932607 (2015) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2082740
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2015, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Coblation® is an electrosurgical technology which employs electrically-excited electrodes in the presence of saline solution to produce a localized and ionized plasma that can cut, ablate, and otherwise treat tissues for many different surgical needs. To improve our understanding of how Coblation plasmas develop from devices made from different electrode materials we describe several experiments designed to elucidate material effects. Initial experiments studied simple, noncommercial cylindrical electrode test devices operating in buffered isotonic saline without applied suction. The applied RF voltage, approximately 300 V RMS, was sufficient to form glow discharges around the active electrodes. The devices exhibited significantly different operating characteristics, which we ascribe to the differing oxidation tendencies and other physical properties of the electrode materials. Parameters measured include RMS voltage and current, instantaneous voltage and current, temporally-resolved light emission and optical emission spectra, and electrode mass-loss measurements. We correlate these measured properties with some of the bulk characteristics of the electrode materials such as work functions, standard reduction potentials and sputter yields.

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K. R. Stalder, T. P. Ryan, J. Gaspredes, and J. Woloszko "The differing behavior of electrosurgical devices made of various electrode materials operating under plasma conditions", Proc. SPIE 9326, Energy-based Treatment of Tissue and Assessment VIII, 932607 (11 March 2015); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2082740

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KEYWORDS

Electrodes

Plasma

Oxidation

Ions

Tantalum

Scanning electron microscopy

Sputter deposition

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