Planar transducer for measuring biomedical pressures
OwnerVincent Casey, Stephen O'Sullivan +1inventors
InventorsVincent Casey, Stephen O'Sullivan, Ronan Nagle
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A planar pressure transducer is disclosed which is useful for interposing between living tissue and a medical device that applies pressure to the tissue in order to estimate the pressure applied to a selected area of the tissue. The planar pressure transducer comprises a pair of opposed plates between which the proximal ends of optical fibers and a deformable polymer structure are disposed. When the plates are subjected to a pressure acting normally to the plane of the plates an optical signal is obtained via the distal ends of the fibers and related to the pressure acting on the plates.
Claims18
A planar transducer for measuring biomedical pressures which comprises:
- a substrate plate and an opposing pressure plate;
- a measurement channel optical fiber set with proximal and distal ends, said proximal end being attached to said substrate plate, said distal end being connectable remotely to an electronics module;
- a reference channel optical fiber set with proximal and distal ends, said proximal end being attached to said substrate plate, said distal end being connectable remotely to an electronics module;
- a deformable polymer structure disposed between the substrate and pressure plates;
- a measurement channel shutter-reflector structure attached to said pressure plate, said shutter-reflector having a reflective surface that faces the measurement channel optical fiber set proximal end;
- a reference channel shutter-reflector structure attached to said substrate plate, said shutter-reflector having a reflective surface that faces the reference channel optical fiber set proximal end;
- and
- the transducer being configured so that when said plates are pressed toward one another the measurement channel shutter-reflector structure modulates a light beam that is transmitted in the measurement channel optical fiber set in correlation with a variation in the deformation of the deformable polymer structure.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.