Smart Staple Cartridge Power Isolation for Fault-Tolerant Wake-Up
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Solution Overview
Problem
Surgical instruments, particularly surgical stapling and cutting instruments, face challenges with power management and protection against short circuits, overcurrent/voltage conditions, and reverse polarity, which can lead to instrument malfunction or safety issues.
Innovation Solution
An electronic system for surgical instruments is developed, incorporating a main power supply circuit, a supplementary power supply circuit, and various protection circuits such as short circuit protection, overcurrent/voltage protection, and reverse polarity protection to isolate and remedy these conditions, ensuring safe operation and preventing instrument malfunction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a supplementary power supply circuit is added to provide isolated power for secondary circuits, then reliability is improved by protecting against short circuits and power failures, but device complexity increases due to additional circuits and components
Solution Approach 1:
The power supply system is divided into a main power supply circuit and a supplementary power supply circuit. The supplementary circuit includes its own power source (such as a battery) and can operate independently to power secondary circuits when the main power supply fails or experiences a short circuit condition.
Solution Approach 2:
The system monitors power supply parameters (voltage, current) and automatically switches between main and supplementary power sources based on detected conditions. When a short circuit is detected in the main power supply, the system changes the power source parameter to use the supplementary circuit instead.
2Reliability
If protection circuits are implemented to detect and respond to short circuit conditions, then reliability is improved by preventing instrument malfunction, but device complexity increases due to additional monitoring and control circuits
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of short circuit conditions through monitoring circuits that continuously check power supply parameters. When abnormal conditions are detected, the system takes preliminary protective action by switching to the supplementary power supply before actual damage or malfunction occurs.
Solution Approach 2:
A control circuit acts as an intermediary between the main power supply and secondary circuits. This intermediary monitors the main power supply conditions and controls the switching to the supplementary power supply circuit when needed, providing intelligent protection without requiring complex direct protection circuits in each secondary circuit.
3Reliability
If the supplementary power supply circuit operates independently with its own power source, then reliability is improved by ensuring continuous operation during main power failures, but use of energy increases due to the additional power source
Solution Approach 1:
The supplementary power supply circuit dynamically switches between active and standby states. During normal operation, the main power supply powers the secondary circuits and the supplementary circuit remains in a low-power standby mode. When the main power supply fails, the supplementary circuit transitions to an active state to provide power, ensuring continuous operation while minimizing overall energy consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
An end effector for use with a surgical stapling instrument is disclosed. The end effector comprises a first jaw, a second jaw movable relative to the first jaw to grasp tissue therebetween, and a staple cartridge. The staple cartridge comprises staples deployable into the tissue. The end effector further comprises a magnetic sensor configured to measure a parameter indicative of an identifying characteristic of the staple cartridge, an impedance sensor configured to measure a parameter indicative of an impedance of the tissue, and a processing unit in communication with the impedance sensor. The processing unit is configured to determine a property of the tissue based on an output of the impedance sensor.