Guidewire Conductive Traces Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Guidewires with integrated sensors face challenges due to limited space and flexibility, making it difficult to effectively construct and use sensors or electrodes along their length, especially in tortuous vascular pathways.
Innovation Solution
A guidewire design featuring a guidewire core with insulating layers and conductive traces arranged in a specific configuration, including connection sections and conductive bands made of different materials, to facilitate electrical connections and sensor integration while maintaining mechanical properties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple sensors and electrodes are integrated into the guidewire, then measurement capability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple conductive elements (electrodes and sensor traces) into a single integrated guidewire structure. The conductive traces are embedded within the guidewire body alongside electrodes, merging sensing and stimulation functions into one unified device rather than separate components.
Solution Approach 2:
The guidewire is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously - it can deliver electrical stimulation through electrodes, sense physiological parameters through conductive traces, and maintain mechanical flexibility for navigation. This multi-functional design allows one device to replace what would traditionally require multiple separate instruments.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple conductive elements are added to the guidewire, then sensor integration is improved, but space availability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent utilizes the radial dimension of the guidewire by embedding conductive traces within the guidewire body rather than adding them only on the surface. This internal placement in the radial dimension allows additional conductive elements without significantly increasing the outer diameter, effectively using the cross-sectional area efficiently.
Solution Approach 2:
The conductive traces are nested within the guidewire structure, embedded in insulating material that is itself part of the guidewire body. This nesting arrangement allows multiple conductive elements to coexist within the limited space by placing them at different radial depths rather than competing for surface area.
3Ease of operation
If the guidewire is made more flexible to navigate tortuous pathways, then ease of operation is improved, but mechanical strength deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The guidewire employs composite construction with multiple materials - a flexible polymer body providing flexibility for navigation, embedded conductive traces for sensing, and insulating material for electrical isolation. This composite structure allows the guidewire to achieve both flexibility for tortuous pathway navigation and sufficient mechanical strength to maintain integrity during procedures.
Data Source
AI summary
Multiple approaches to incorporating multiple conductors on a guidewire by building the multiple conductor traces of variable sizes and material compositions on separate insulating layers are described. The approaches described in the invention facilitate ease of assembly of sensors to the guidewire or catheter element. This approach is particularly useful in scenarios where electrical or mechanical properties of the device need to be altered in specific sections to either enhance device performance and reliability (e.g. selective abrasion resistance), or facilitate ease of assembly (e.g. soldering or connection ease), or in some instances achieve desired electrical characteristics (e.g. impedance). The desired properties are incorporated into the same device requiring an innovative approach to forming signal wires in an otherwise tight space without impacting the primary mechanical performance of the devices.