ENGG1011 Introduction to Biomedical Engineering Biomedical Sensors

Topic 7: Biomedical Sensors

Resistor sensor
Capacitor sensor
Inductor sensor
Professor Paul Y.S. Cheung Piezoelectric sensor
Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Thermal sensors (thermal couple/thermistor)
Optical
(Material in this lecture has been adopted from a number
sources including a number of reference books, JHU and Stony
Chemical
Brook (Prof Wei Lin), and from Medical Instrumentation (3rd Ed)
by Prof J Webster)
Biochemical

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

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Sensor is a Transducer: What is a transducer ? Physical Sensors

Transducer: device that converts energy from one form to another
Sensor: device that converts a physical parameter to electrical output
Actuator: device that converts an electrical signal to physical output
Transducers

Sensors Actuators
e.g. Piezoelectric:

Physical Force -> voltage

Electrical
parameter Input Voltage-> Force

Electrical Physical Applications:

Output Output
(e.g. microphone) (e.g. speaker) => Ultrasound 4
3
 Resistive Sensors
Biomedical Physical Sensors
Resistor sensor converts the measurand to
Design circuit to use
Hg strain gauge to electric signal by changing its resistance.
detect chest
movement/respiration Deformation of the sensor material is the common
mechanism to change the resistance.

Pacemaker
Strain gauge is the typical example of resistor
Airbag sensor.
What application of a
bladder pressure
Wheatstone bridge is the circuit to detect the
sensor can you think resistance change of the resistor sensor.
of?

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Resistive Sensors - Strain Gages Bridge Circuits (dont try to remember equation!)
The Wheatstone bridge circuit contains four resistors arranged in a
diamond. Voltage Vs is supplied across the vertical diagonal of the
diamond. The voltage Vout appears across the pair of terminals connected
along the horizontal diagonal.

Carrier

Resistance of the L
R
strain gauge A

Where can you use it in the body? E.g. Vout = VA - VB = i2R3 - i1R4
prosthetic, or artificial hip/knew? i1 = Vs / ( R1 + R4 )
i2 = Vs / ( R3 + R2 )
Strain gages are generally mounted on cantilevers and diaphragms and Vout / Vs = R3 / ( R3 + R2 ) - R4 / ( R1 + R4 )
measure the deflection of these.
More than one strain gage is generally used and the readout generally
employs a bridge circuit. 7 8
 Strain Gage Mounting Inductive Sensors

Applications: Primary Secondary Displacement Sensor

Surgical forceps
An interesting
application: traffic
signal
Blood pressure Beach comber!
transducer (e.g. Mine sweeper
intracranial pressure
Atomic force
microscope
An inductor is basically a coil A transformer is made of at
of wire over a core (usually least two coils wound over the
ferrous) core: one is primary and
another is secondary
It responds to electric or
Taken from http://www.omega.com/literature/transactions/volume3/strain3.html 9 10
magnetic fields Inductors and tranformers work only for ac signals

Inductive Sensors - LVDT Capacitive Sensors

LVDT Linear Variable Differential Transformer
Electrolytic or
ceramic capacitors
are most common

e.g. An electrolytic
capacitor is made of
Aluminum
Source: http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~pyo22/mem351-2004/lecture04/pp062-073lvdt.pdf
evaporated on either
side of a very thin
plastic film (or
An LVDT is used as a sensitive displacement sensor: for example, in a cardiac assist device or a
basic research project to study displacement produced by a contracting muscle. electrolyte)
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Piezoelectric Sensors Piezoelectric Sensors
31 denotes
the crystal
What is piezoelectricity ? axis

Strain causes a
redistribution of
charges and results in a
net electric dipole (a
dipole is kind of a
battery!) a charge
generator
A piezoelectric material
Different transducer applications: produces voltage by Above equations are valid when force is applied in the L,W or t
Accelerometer distributing charge directions respectively.
(under mechanical
Microphone strain/stress) 13 14

Thermocouples Types of Thermocouples

Seebeck Effect
When a pair of dissimilar metals are joined at one end, and there is a Thermocouple Conductors Positive Conductors Negative
temperature difference between the joined ends and the open ends, Type
thermal emf (electro-motive force) is generated, which can be measured in B Platinum-30% rhodium Platinum-6% rhodium
the open ends.
E Nickel-chromium alloy Copper-nickel alloy
This forms the basis of thermocouples. If TREF is known, T1 can be
J Iron Copper-nickel alloy
obtained by measuring VOUT. (Note: the relationship between the emf and
temperature difference is non-linear) K Nickel-chromium alloy Nickel-aluminum alloy
N Nickel-chromium-silicon Nickel-silicon-magnesium
alloy alloy
R Platinum-13% rhodium Platinum
S Platinum-10% rhodium Platinum
T Copper Copper-nickel alloy

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Over a small dynamic range a
thermistor can be linearized
Thermistors
Thermistors are semiconductors made of
ceramic materials that are thermal
resistors with a high negative temperature
coefficient. It can measure temperature up
to 300 degrees and very accurate and
stable. Its high resistance makes the
resistance in lead wires negligible.
R0 is the resistance at a reference point
(in the limit, absolute 0).
Radiation Thermometry
Governed by Wiens Displacement Law which says that at the
peak of the emitted radiant flux per unit area per unit wavelength
occurs when -3 .
maxT = 2.898x10 m K
Source: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/wien.html#c2
Resistance Temperature Detector (RTD)
Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs) are made of
coils or films of metals (usually platinum). When heated,
the resistance of the metal increases; when cooled, the
resistance decreases.
Resistance varies with Temperature
Platinum 100 Ohm at 0C
Used to measure temperature from 0C to 450C
Very accurate
Very stable
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A commercial ThermoWorks RTD probe
Fiber Optics
Most of the light is trapped in the core, but if the
cladding is temperature sensitive (e.g. due to
expansion), it might allow some light to leak
through.
-> hence the amount of light transmitted would be
proportional to temperature
A fiber optic cable
-> since you are measuring small changes in light
19 level, this sensor is exquisitely sensitive. 20
 Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors Chemical Sensors (Biosensors)

Biosensors produce an output (electrical) which is proportional to

the concentration of biological analytes.
A typical biosensor

Analyte Signal
Nortech's fiber-optic temperature sensor probe consists of a gallium Conditioning
arsenide crystal and a dielectric mirror on one end of an optical fiber
and a stainless steel connector at the other end.
Biological
Transducer
Detection
Source: http://www.sensorsmag.com/articles/0501/57/main.shtml Agent
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Biosensing Examples Optical Biosensors

Sensing Principle
They link changes in light intensity to changes in mass,
absorption, luminence or concentration, hence, fluorescent
or colorimetric molecules must be present. Infrared
LED Spectroscopy

IR
light
Finger

23 Photodetector 24
 Sensor Characteristics Transfer Function Sensor Characteristics Accuracy & Precision

Transfer Function:
The functional relationship between physical input signal and electrical output signal.
Usually, this relationship is represented as a graph showing the relationship between
the input and output signal, and the details of this relationship may constitute a
complete description of the sensor characteristics. For expensive sensors which are
individually calibrated, this might take the form of the certified calibration curve.
Example: A thermister
Input temperature
Output Resistance
Accuracy: The largest expected error between actual and ideal output signals.
Sometimes this is quoted as a fraction of the full scale output. For example, a
thermometer might be guaranteed accurate to within 5% of FSO (Full Scale
Output)
Precision: Measure of high repeatable the measurement is. Sensors can be
highly precise but not very accurate.

Note:
input x(t) output y(t) 1.They can be physical x x xxx
xx
y(t) = F(x(t)) quantity or
characteristics
2.Need changes but no
x x
need to be positive
slope x
3.Linearity desirable but
not necessary
High Accuracy High Precision
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Sensor Characteristics Dynamic Range Sensor Characteristics - Hysteresis

Span or Dynamic Range: Hysteresis:
The range of input physical signals which may be converted to electrical signals by the
Some sensors do not return to the same output value when the input stimulus
sensor. Signals outside of this range are expected to cause unacceptably large
inaccuracy. This span or dynamic range is usually specified by the sensor supplier as
is cycled up or down. The width of the expected error in terms of the
the range over which other performance characteristics described in the data sheets are measured quantity is defined as the hysteresis.
expected to apply.

Example: Flux Density

Human sight and hearing (i.e. retina and
cochlea) has dynamic range of 100 dB
or 1 vs 1,000,000
LCD display is 1,000 (30dB)
CMOS image sensors is 110 dB (better
than you can see)
Field Strength
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Sensor Characteristics - Noise Sensor Characteristics Resolution & Bandwidth

Noise: Resolution:
All sensors produce some output noise in addition to the output signal. The noise of The resolution of a sensor is defined as the minimum detectable signal fluctuation.
the sensor limits the performance of the system based on the sensor. Noise is generally Since fluctuations are temporal phenomena, there is some relationship between the
distributed across the frequency spectrum. Many common noise sources produce a timescale for the fluctuation and the minimum detectable amplitude. Therefore, the
white noise distribution, which is to say that the spectral noise density is the same at definition of resolution must include some information about the nature of the
all frequencies. Since there is an inverse relationship between the bandwidth and measurement being carried out.
measurement time, it can be said that the noise decreases with the square root of the
measurement time.
Bandwidth:
All sensors have finite response times to an instantaneous change in physical signal. In
addition, many sensors have decay times, which would represent the time after a step
change in physical signal for the sensor output to decay to its original value. The
Example: CMOS reciprocal of these times correspond to the upper and lower cutoff frequencies,
digital image respectively. The bandwidth of a sensor is the frequency range between these two
sensors at low frequencies.
illumination
condition

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Case Study: Pulse Oximetry Absorption of Red and Infra-Red Light by Blood

The pulse oximeter is Two wavelengths of

a spectrophotometric monochromatic light
device that detects -- red (660 nm) and
and calculates the infrared (940 nm) --
differential absorption are used to gauge
of light by oxygenated the presence of
and reduced oxygenated and
hemoglobin to get reduced hemoglobin
SpO2. A light source in blood.
and a photodetector Reference: Pulse
are contained within Oximetry by John
an ear or finger probe Moyle, BMJ Books
for easy application.
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Basic Components of Pulse Oxymeter Absorption in Pulse Oxymeter

Absorption components:
-Tissue
-Venous blood
-Arterial blood
-Absorption variation
due to pulsation of
Enclosure cut off ambient light. Red and Infrared arterial blood
LED turned on in turn, with a dark period in between,
to get the dark current (due to ambient light)

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Absorption in Pulse Oxymeter SpO2 Lookup Table

Normalization of Gain=> Equalize DC and use

AC (pulse variation) to compute red:infrared
absorption ratio 35 36
Block Diagram of Pulse Oxymeter The Future: Smart Dust (UC Berkeley)

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CardioMEMS: Wireless Aneurism Pressure

Smart Dress (MIT Media Lab) Sensor (Georgia Tech)

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The Future: Artists Impressions!

MEMS submarine
MEMS robot & red
in blood stream
blood cell 41