Solid state transcutaneous blood gas sensors
AssigneeDiamond Shamrock Chemicals Company
InventorNicholas Papadakis
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Abstract
Disclosed is a solid state oxygen sensor utilizing a noble metal first electrode and a silver/silver halide reference electrode and an oxygen permeable polymeric membrane electrolyte. Also disclosed is a method of producing said sensor and a method of using said sensor.
Claims15
A solid state transcutaneous oxygen sensor comprising:
- (a) an electrically insulating substrate;
- (b) a first electrode comprising a noble metal on said substrate of (a);
- (c) a second electrode comprising a silver/silver halide reference electrode on said substrate of (a);
- (d) an insulating dielectric layer on said components (a), (b) and (c) characterized in that at least a portion of component (b) and component (c) remains exposed;
- and
- (e) an oxygen permeable polymeric membrane containing a bound liquid electrolyte over at least said exposed portion of said first and said second electrodes;
- (f) a polymeric oxygen permeable, liquid impermeable, biocompatible membrane coating over said oxygen permeable polymeric membrane containing a bound liquid electrolyte;
- further characterized in that said exposed portions of said first and second electrodes have well-defined surface areas.
A solid state oxygen sensor as claimed in claim 2 wherein said second electrode is selected from the group consisting of silver/silver chloride, silver/silver bromide, silver/silver fluoride, and silver/silver iodide.
A method for non-invasively measuring the blood oxygen partial pressure (PO.sub.2) of a patient, which method comprises applying a polarization potential to a solid state transcutaneous oxygen sensor comprising:
- (a) an electrically insulating substrate;
- (b) a first electrode comprising a noble metal on said substrate of (a);
- (c) a second electrode comprising a silver/silver halide reference electrode on said substrate of (a);
- (d) an insulating dielectric layer on said components (a), (b) and (c) characterized in that at least a portion of component (b) and component (c) remains exposed;
- (e) an oxygen permeable polymeric membrane containing a bound liquid electrolyte over at least said exposed portion of said first and said second electrodes;
- (f) a polymeric oxygen permeable, liquid impermeable, bicompatible membrane coating over said oxygen permeable polymeric membrane containing a bound liquid electrolyte;
- and
- (g) further characterized in that said exposed portions of said first and second electrodes have well-defined surface areas;
- then contacting the patient's skin with the sensor and measuring the current flow response.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.