Method and apparatus for penetrating tissue

A tissue penetrating system, comprising:

• a housing member;
• an electrically driven drive force generator;
• a plurality of penetrating members positioned in the housing member, wherein each of the penetrating members is coupled to the drive force generator;
• a tissue stabilizing member coupled to the housing and configured to stabilize tissue prior to a lancing event;
• a penetrating member position sensor coupled to the plurality of penetrating members and measures actual depth of penetration by a penetrating member based on a penetrating member contact point that is measured prior to a lancing event,
• a processor coupled to the penetrating member sensor and the drive force generator, operatively programmed with software that has control instructions for the electronically driven drive force generator to keep a wound tract created by a penetrating member open for a sufficient time to provide for spontaneous flow of blood for sample capture into an associated sample with a controlled blood volume of no more than 1 μL, wherein the control instructions are selected from at least one of, velocity of a penetrating member, velocity of a penetrating member in or out of target tissue and a dwell time of a penetrating member in the tissue site;
• and
• wherein a time and position of tissue contact and depth of penetration is determined in response to the processor knowing, a distance of the penetrating member tip from a target tissue, acceleration and displacement of a penetrating member, and a start position of the penetrating member.