Maternal monitoring transducer and operating method
AssigneeKoninklijke Philips N.V.
InventorsMarkus Wohlschlager, Manuel Stephan
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Abstract
The present disclosure relates to a maternal monitoring transducer (20), comprising a housing (60), a substrate board (72), particularly a PCB (70), disposed in the housing (60) and comprising control components (74), and a displacement measurement arrangement (76) comprising a displacement-sensitive structure (78) that is arranged to detect deformations of a deflectable measurement section (80) of the substrate board (72), wherein the maternal monitoring transducer (20) supplies a signal that is representative of maternal motion. The disclosure further relates to a method of operating a maternal monitoring transducer (20).
Claims20
A maternal monitoring transducer comprising:
- a housing;
- a substrate board with circuitry components disposed in the housing, wherein the substrate board comprises a recess that defines a deflectable measurement section, which is integrally formed in the substrate board, such that the deflectable measurement section is connected with a surrounding region of the substrate board at a transitional portion and is separated from the surrounding region by the recess opposite the transitional portion, enabling deformations of the deflectable measurement section relative to the surrounding region in response to actuating forces on the deflectable measurement section;
- and
- a displacement measurement arrangement at least partially integrated into the substrate board, wherein the displacement measurement arrangement comprises a displacement-sensitive structure that is arranged to detect the deformations of the deflectable measurement section of the substrate board,
- wherein the displacement measurement arrangement is arranged to supply a uterine activity signal indicative of uterine activity based on the detected deformations.
A method of operating a maternal monitoring transducer, the method comprising:
- providing a substrate board with circuitry components, wherein the substrate board comprises a recess that defines a deflectable measurement section, which is integrally formed in the substrate board, such that the deflectable measurement section is connected with a surrounding region of the substrate board at a transitional portion and is separated from the surrounding region by the recess opposite the transitional portion, enabling deformations of the deflectable measurement section relative to the surrounding region in response to actuating forces on the deflectable measurement section;
- providing a displacement measurement arrangement at least partially integrated into the substrate board, the displacement measurement arrangement comprising a displacement-sensitive structure;
- detecting the deformations of the deflectable measurement section using the displacement-sensitive structure;
- and
- supplying a uterine activity signal indicative of uterine activity, based on the detected deformations of the deflectable measurement section.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.