Medical preparation container comprising microwave powered sensor assembly
AssigneeDanmarks Tekniske Universitet
InventorsHenrik Schneider, Kristian Lindberg-Poulsen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a medical preparation container which includes a microwave power sensor assembly. The microwave powered sensor assembly includes a sensor configured to measure a physical property or chemical property of a medical preparation during its heating in a microwave oven. The microwave powered sensor assembly is configured for harvesting energy from a microwave radiation emitted by the microwave oven and energize the sensor by the harvested microwave energy.
Claims16
A medical preparation container comprising:
- material to hold a medical preparation for heating in a microwave oven;
- and
- a microwave powered sensor assembly comprising:
- a microwave antenna configured to receive microwave radiation within the microwave oven during heating of the medical preparation, the microwave antenna having a predetermined tuning frequency to generate a radio frequency (RF) antenna signal in response to the microwave radiation at a predetermined excitation frequency, wherein the microwave antenna is powered by the microwave radiation without an external power source outside the microwave oven;
- a direct current (dc) power supply circuit coupled to the microwave antenna and configured to receive the RF antenna signal and produce a power supply voltage by rectifying and extracting energy from the RF antenna signal;
- and
- a sensor connected to the power supply voltage and configured to measure and output a physical property or a chemical property of the medical preparation held in the medical preparation container during heating of the medical preparation, wherein the microwave powered sensor assembly is attached to a wall of the material to hold the medical preparation or partially or fully embedded into the wall of the material to hold the medical preparation, wherein the medical preparation container is to operate enclosed within a microwave oven without an external power source outside the microwave oven.
A method of monitoring a physical property or a chemical property of a medical preparation during heating, the method comprising:
- a) positioning a medical preparation container, holding a medical preparation inside an oven chamber of a microwave oven, wherein the medical preparation container comprises material to hold the medical preparation for heating in the microwave oven and a microwave powered sensor assembly comprising a sensor, wherein the microwave powered sensor assembly is attached to a wall of the material or partially or fully embedded into the wall of the material;
- b) activating the microwave oven to produce electromagnetic radiation within the oven chamber thereby irradiating and heating the medical preparation;
- c) extracting energy from a radio frequency (RF) antenna signal in response to irradiation of the microwave powered sensor assembly by the electromagnetic radiation such that the microwave powered sensor assembly is powered by the electromagnetic radiation without an external power source outside the oven chamber of the microwave oven;
- and
- d) repeatedly measuring a physical property or a chemical property of the medical preparation by the sensor that is powered by the energy extracted from the RF antenna signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.