Disposable Wireless Pulse Oximeter Sensor Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current pulse oximetry technologies face challenges in providing continuous, wireless, and disposable sensors that balance cost, power consumption, and clinical-grade monitoring requirements, often resulting in either spot-check applications or cumbersome systems that are not suitable for extended use.
Innovation Solution
A wireless, disposable pulse oximeter sensor with low power consumption and compact instrumentation, utilizing advanced signal processing and low-energy wireless communication protocols, and distributed computing, allowing for real-time, continuous measurement of SpO2, PR, and PI with a small footprint and low manufacturing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If wireless sensors are used for continuous monitoring, then patient mobility and comfort are improved, but power consumption increases making the sensor unsuitable for extended use
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor transmits data periodically rather than continuously, using intermittent communication bursts to convey measurement data, SpO2 levels, and alarm status. This periodic transmission approach significantly reduces power consumption while maintaining clinical utility, allowing the wireless sensor to operate for extended periods on a single battery charge.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensor dynamically adjusts its operational parameters including sampling frequency, transmission power, and measurement intervals based on patient needs and battery status. This adaptive parameter adjustment optimizes the balance between monitoring quality and power consumption, enabling extended continuous use.
2Measurement precision
If complex electronics are used for clinical-grade monitoring, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a signal conditioning circuit as an intermediary component that processes and filters the raw optical signals from the photodetector before they reach the microcontroller. This intermediary stage includes amplification, filtering, and analog-to-digital conversion that simplifies the processing burden on the microcontroller while maintaining clinical-grade measurement accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex mechanical signal processing components with integrated electronic circuits and software-based algorithms. The microcontroller executes digital signal processing algorithms that substitute for traditional analog filtering and processing hardware, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining measurement precision.
3Ease of manufacture
If disposable sensors are used, then ease of manufacture and sterilization are improved, but power consumption becomes a limiting factor for wireless operation
Solution Approach 1:
The disposable sensor employs periodic data transmission rather than continuous wireless communication, significantly extending battery life. The sensor accumulates measurements and transmits them in periodic bursts, allowing the disposable unit to operate for the full duration of typical patient monitoring needs without requiring recharging or complex power management.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent fully embraces the disposable nature of the sensor, integrating a small battery and simple power management circuitry that is optimized for single-use. The disposable design eliminates the need for expensive rechargeable batteries or complex power recycling systems, accepting limited power capacity in exchange for manufacturing simplicity and clinical hygiene benefits.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables continuous, real-time monitoring with reduced power consumption and manufacturing costs, providing clinical-grade data without the need for complex electronics or bulky components, enhancing patient comfort and reducing operational expenses.
Implementation Method 1
Because blood absorbs and scatters light at different rates depending on the applied light wavelength and the blood's oxygen saturation, the red and the near-infrared light wavelengths produced by the LEDs are attenuated at different rates by the site's optical paths
Implementation Method 2
Because blood absorbs and scatters light at different rates depending on the applied light wavelength and the blood's oxygen saturation
Implementation Method 3
a silicon detector (photodiode) that detects the light emitted by those diodes after it has passed through some part of a patient's body
Implementation Method 4
the heart's activity during its normal cardiac cycle produces a pulsatile arterial blood flow (plethysmograph) at the measurement site, and that pulsing modulates the light absorbed and scattered by the sensor throughout the site's optical paths. As a result, the red and near-infrared light signals reaching the photodiode also have a 'pulsing' pattern, or a pulsatile component (photoplethysmograph)
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus and methods provide wireless, disposable, continuous pulse oximeter sensor technology, useful and beneficial for a number of applications including relatively extended periods of data collection, and/or packaged in compact and easy-to-use assemblies. Economic fabrication and use provides flexible methodologies that can reduce the overall costs of monitoring and collecting patient's physiological data, and provide relatively greater ease and comfort to the patient. A disposable wireless continuous pulse oximeter sensor has a reduced emitter-detector separation, a low-power frontend, and a low-cost processor that sends waveforms to a host device so that the host can calculate and display the parameters of interest. Complications created by the reduced distance between emitter and detector are minimized by using an emitter-detector assembly with an optically dark background, and a bandage for improved optical compliance.