Optimization of electromedical instrumentation thermal design

In this paper a new procedure to validate the electromedical instrumentation during the first phases of the design is proposed. In particular, the thermal behavior and reliability performances of a fundamental unit of a medical ultrasound instrument are discussed. Being the system taken into account complex, the transmitter-receiver unit of an echographic instrument is considered as equipment under test. A reliability analysis on this board is implemented and critical parts were identified. The target is the characterization of the Tx/Rx chain by means of a new validation procedure and, in particular, the identification of the critical elements during thermal step stress when the complete medical instrument is working. The planning and the implementation of the thermal step stress test are presented and some results are also reported in the paper.