Flexible Medical Sensor Support for Emitter-Detector Alignment
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing medical sensors face challenges in convenience due to stress generation and misalignment of light emitters and detectors when attached to a subject's body, which affects their functionality and usability.
Innovation Solution
The medical sensor is designed with a supporting member that includes flexible portions to promote elongation and suppress stress, and adhesive portions with varying adhesiveness to facilitate easy reattachment and alignment of light emitters and detectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If the supporting member is made rigid to maintain alignment of light emitter and detector, then manufacturing precision is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in bending and adapting to body contours
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting member is divided into multiple portions (first supporting portion, second supporting portion, and third supporting portion) with different flexibility characteristics. The third supporting portion has higher flexibility than the first and second supporting portions, allowing the structure to be bent and adapted to body contours while maintaining alignment in the rigid sections.
Solution Approach 2:
Different portions of the supporting member are assigned different flexibility properties. The first and second supporting portions have lower flexibility to maintain alignment precision, while the third supporting portion has higher flexibility to enable bending and adaptation, creating local quality variations that resolve the contradiction.
2Ease of operation
If the supporting member is made flexible to ease operation and adaptation, then ease of operation is improved, but manufacturing precision deteriorates due to misalignment of light emitter and detector
Solution Approach 1:
The supporting member is segmented into portions with different flexibility characteristics. The first and second supporting portions maintain rigidity to preserve alignment precision, while the third supporting portion provides flexibility for adaptation, allowing the system to achieve both ease of operation and manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The supporting member exhibits local quality variations where specific portions (third supporting portion) have higher flexibility for ease of operation, while other portions (first and second supporting portions) maintain lower flexibility to ensure manufacturing precision and alignment.
3Reliability
If adhesive strength is increased to ensure secure attachment, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to difficulty in reattachment and adjustment
Solution Approach 1:
The adhesive layer exhibits local quality variations with different adhesiveness in different regions. This allows certain areas to have strong adhesion for reliable attachment while other areas have reduced adhesion for easy reattachment and adjustment, resolving the contradiction between reliability and ease of operation.
Data Source
AI summary
At least one light emitter is configured to emit light. At least one light detector is configured to output a signal corresponding to an amount of incident light. A supporting member is adapted to be attached to a body of a subject. The supporting member includes a first supporting portion, a second supporting portion and a third supporting portion. The first supporting portion supports and covers the light emitter. The second supporting portion supports and covers the light detector. The third supporting portion is located between the first supporting portion and the second supporting portion. At least one of the first supporting portion, the second supporting portion and the third supporting portion includes a portion with higher flexibility than an adjacent portion thereof.