Patent ID: 8206308

Claim:
A catheter assembly for an intravascular ultrasound system, the catheter assembly comprising: a catheter having a longitudinal length, a distal end, and a proximal end, the catheter comprising a lumen extending along the longitudinal length of the catheter from the proximal end to the distal end; an imaging core configured and arranged for inserting into the lumen, the imaging core comprising a rotatable driveshaft having a distal end and a longitudinal length, at least one transducer mounted to the distal end of the rotatable driveshaft, the at least one transducer configured and arranged for transforming applied electrical pulses to acoustic pulses and also for transforming received echo pulses to electrical pulses, at least two conductors coupled to the at least one transducer and forming an electrical path to and from the at least one transducer, the at least two conductors extending along the longitudinal length of the driveshaft, and a conductive shield disposed around a portion of each of the at least two conductors; and a shield-coupling capacitor electrically coupled to the conductive shield, the shield-coupling capacitor comprising at least one rotating capacitor, the at least one rotating capacitor comprising at least one rotating plate and at least one stationary plate, the shield-coupling capacitor configured and arranged for coupling the conductive shield to a system ground.