Patent ID: 8801615

Claim:
A system for delivering ultrasound therapy to a tissue comprising: an ultrasonic applicator including a transducer element, wherein the transducer element is configured to operate in an imaging mode to intermittently image the tissue to acquire signals used for forming images of the tissue to be treated; three variable focus lenses attached to said transducer element, wherein focus of the three variable focus lenses is controlled by lens voltage signals; a motion controller configured to move the ultrasonic applicator in at least one of a rotational direction and an axial direction; and a treatment controller configured to control the voltage signals applied to the three variable focus lenses based on the images of the tissue to direct an ultrasonic treatment beam emitted by said transducer element for treating the tissue, and wherein the three variable focus lenses are placed side-by-side over the transducer element for forming a main beam on an optical axis of the three variable focus lenses, each of the three variable focus lenses being separately controllable by the treatment controller to change an aperture of the main beam on the optical axis and form divergent beams at sides of the main beam that diverge from the optical axis and have a lower energy than the main beam by changing meniscuses of the three variable focus lenses to result in adjacent end points of two adjacent lenses of the three variable focus lenses being at different locations along a boundary of the two adjacent lenses including the adjacent end points.