Silicon pressure transducer arrays for blood-pressure measurement

✍ Scribed by S. Terry; J.S. Eckerle; R.D. Kornbluh; T. Low; C.M. Ablow

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 636 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0924-4247
• DOI: 10.1016/0924-4247(90)87091-v

✦ Synopsis

Arterial tonometry is a technique for bloodpressure measurement that uses an array of pressure transducers pressed against the skin overlying an artery. A new construction for tonometer transducer arrays in which several transducers share a single diaphragm is described. The transducer array is fabricated from silicon using anisotropic etching. An epitaxial layer is used to stop the etch and thereby define the thickness of the diaphragm. Theoretical analyses are employed to predict transducer sensitivity and crosstalk. The impact of crosstalk on blood-pressure measurement accuracy is analyzed. This impact is acceptably small if the width of the transducer diaphragm is small compared to the artery being measured. Transducer arrays employing the new, shared-diaphragm construction exhibited sensitivities of about 25 to 50/~V V -~ mmHg -t and acceptable crosstalk.