Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation

MTBM504C

MTBM504C Advanced Biomedical Instrumentation

 M.Tech. Semester – II (Biomedical Engineering)

L T P Class Work : 25 Marks

3 - - Theory : 75 Marks
Total : 100 Marks
Duration of Exam: 03 Hours
Credits : 03

Unit I
Concept of Instrument: Chronological history of medical instruments, problems
encountered while measuring medical parameters, static and dynamic characteristics of
medical instrument. Sensors & Transducers: Resistive, Inductive and Capacitive
Transduction. Strain Gauge based Blood pressure transducer, and Electromagnetic Blood
flow transducer.
Unit II
Bio-potentials and Amplifiers: Resting and action potential, Electrode-Electrolyte interface,
half cell potential, polarizable and nonpolarizable electrodes, Ag/AgCl electrodes.
Characteristics of ideal and real op-amp, instrumentation amplifier, ECG "leads", differential
bio-amplifier – right leg driven ECG amplifier, Design and analysis of EMG & EEG pre
amplifiers.
Unit III
Clinical Laboratory Instruments: Blood Cell Counters, Blood gas analyzers, Auto
analyzers. Stimulators: Basic principle, working and technical specifications of Shortwave
Diathermy, Surgical Diathermy machine, Ultrasonic therapy unit, Nerve and Muscle
Stimulator.
Unit IV
Patient monitoring & ICU equipments: components of patient monitoring system, holter
monitor (cardiac stress test), Anaesthesia Machine, Heart-lung machine, Haemodialysis
machine.
Pacemaker & Defibrillators: Cardiac Pacemakers: Modes of operation, leads and
electrodes. DC defibrillator, Modes of operation and electrodes.

Note:
1. The paper setter will set two questions (with/without parts) from each of the four
units. The examinee will attempt five questions in all selecting at least one question
from each unit. All questions carry equal marks.
2. The use of programmable devices such as programmable calculators, phones etc. and
sharing of any material during examination are not allowed.

A specific note shall be inserted in relevant question paper wherever the use of graph papers,
semilog papers, steam tables, etc. shall be allowed during examination
 Unit I
Concept of Instrument: Chronological history of medical instruments, problems
encountered while measuring medical parameters, static and dynamic characteristics of
medical instrument.
Sensors & Transducers: Resistive, Inductive and Capacitive Transduction. Strain Gauge
based Blood pressure transducer, and Electromagnetic Blood flow transducer.

Concept of Instrument:

Instrument: Measurement.
Meaning of Instrument:
A tool or implement, especially one for precision work.
A means of pursuing an aim.
A person who is exploited or made use of.
A measuring device used to gauge the level, position, speed, etc. of something, especially a
motor vehicle or aircraft.
A formal or legal document.
An object or device for producing musical sounds.

But in engineering especially Instrumentation Engineering, It is a

Device or means by which we measure something (typically physical quantities)

Generalized medical instrumentation system

Assignment 1: clearly define/differentiate between a Machine, Device, Instrument, Tool,

and Equipment.

Medical Instrument: where source of measurand is living being.

 Chronological history of medical instruments

First X-ray picture

1895
German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
takes the first x-ray picture,
First Use of X-Rays
1896
No longer a fad, doctors begin using X-rays
clinically
Hot cathode x-ray tube
1913
William Coolidge invents hot cathode x-ray tube
which greatly improves on x-ray's visualization
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
1946
American physicists Edward Purcell and Felix
Bloch independently discover NMR

Ultrasound for medical diagnosis

1955
Ian Donald, a Scottish physician, begins to
investigate the use of ultrasound to diagnose
gynecological patients.
First use of endoscope
1960
The endoscope, now in commercial production,
is used to examine the stomach of a patient
First MRI images produced
1973
American chemist Paul Lauterbur produces the
first magnetic resonance image (MRI) using
nuclear magnetic resonance data and computer
calculations of tomography First prototype CT scanner
1968
Godfrey Hounsfield's original CT project proposal

First human MRI body scan MRI in Hospital

1977 1980’s
The first MRI body scan is performed on a human using MRI scanners are installed in hospitals
an MRI machine developed by American doctors
Raymond Damadian, Larry Minkoff and Michael
Goldsmith.

Over 2 Billion X-Rays Per Year

Today
Number of Scans increasing every year; digital
radiography introduced
Problems encountered while measuring medical parameters

1. Inaccessibility of Variables
2. Variability of data
3. Lack of knowledge about interrelationships
4. Interaction among Physiological systems
5. Effect of Transducer on measurement
6. Artifacts
7. Energy limitations
8. Safety considerations

Assignment 2: Discuss in detail about various problems encountered while measuring

medical parameters.

Static and Dynamic characteristics of medical instrument

Characteristics of measurement systems

•The system characteristics are to be known, to choose an instrument that most suited to a
particular measurement application.
•The performance characteristics may be broadly divided into two groups, namely ‘static’ and
'dynamic' characteristics.
Static characteristics
•the performance criteria for the measurement of quantities that remain constant, or vary only
quite slowly.
•Dynamic characteristics
•the relationship between the system input and output when the measured quantity
(measurand) is varying rapidly.
Static Performance of Instrument

The static characteristics of instruments are related with steady state response i.e when the
input (measured) does not change, or the input is changing at a slow rate.
Various static characteristics are
 Accuracy & Precision
 Range & Span
 Linearity
 Hysteresis
 Resolution& Threshold
 Repeatability& Reproducibility
 Dead space

Accuracy: It is the degree of closeness with which the reading approaches the true value of
the quantity to be measured. The accuracy can be expressed as:

𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 − 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

× 100
𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒

Precision: It is the measure of reproducibility i.e., given a fixed value of a quantity, precision
is a measure of the degree of agreement within a group of measurements. The precision is
composed of two characteristics:
Conformity: If a measuring instrument consistently and repeatedly provides a value as close
to the true value (of the measured quantity) as an observer can estimate the true value from its
scale reading then this characteristic refers to the conformity of the measurement.

Significant figures: The precision of the measurement is obtained from the number of
significant figures, in which the reading is expressed. The significant figures convey the
actual information about the magnitude & the measurement precision of the quantity.

Difference Between Accuracy and Precision

To a layperson accuracy and precision are synonyms, but to a person involved in
measurement, these two convey different meanings. While accuracy is ‘the state of
being correct’, precision is ‘the state of being exact’, people commonly misconstrue the
two terms.

BASIS FOR
ACCURACY PRECISION
COMPARISON

Meaning Accuracy refers to the level of Precision implies the level of

agreement between the actual variation that lies in the values of
measurement and the absolute several measurements of the same
measurement. factor.

Represents How closely results agree with How closely the results agree with
the standard value? one another?

Factor Single factor Multiple factors

Measure of Statistical bias Statistical variability

Concerned with Systematic Error Random Error

Range & Span

Range: It can be defined as the measure of the instrument between the lowest and highest
readings it can measure. A thermometer has a scale from −40°C to 100°C. Thus the range
varies from −40°C to 100°C.
Span: It can be defined as the range of an instrument from the minimum to maximum scale
value. In the case of a thermometer, its scale goes from −40°C to 100°C. Thus its span is
140°C. i.e. algebraic difference between upper range value and lower range value
Linearity
The linearity of the transducer is an expression of
the extent to which the actual measured curve of a
sensor departs from the ideal curve (a linear
relation between input and output). Linearity is
often specified in terms of percentage of
nonlinearity, which is defined as:

maximum input deviation

Nonlinearity (%) = × 100
maximum full−scale input

Hysteresis
Instrument should be capable of
following the changes of the input
parameter regardless of which
direction the change is made;
hysteresis is the measure of this
property. Hysteresis causes
instrument’s output to assume
different values at a given stimulus
point when that point is approached
with increasing or decreasing
stimulus. Hysteresis includes
backlash. It is usually measured as a
percent of full scale when input
varies over the full increasing and
decreasing range.

Resolution& Threshold
This specification is the smallest detectable incremental change of input parameter that can
be detected in the output signal. Resolution can be expressed either as a proportion of the
reading (or the full-scale reading) or in absolute terms.
Threshold on the other hand is the smallest detectable incremental change of input that can be
detected for the first time when instrument starts taking input from zero.

Repeatability& Reproducibility
Repeatability and reproducibility are ways of measuring precision. Repeatability measures
the variation in measurements taken by a single instrument or person under the same
conditions generally over a short duration of time. Reproducibility on the other hand refers to
the degree of agreement between the results of experiments conducted by different
individuals, at different locations, with different instruments. Generally reproducibility is
over a given period of time.

Dead space is Range of different input values over which there is no change in output values.
Dynamic characteristics
Dynamic characteristics refer to the performance of the instrument when the input variable is
changing rapidly with time. When dynamic input is applied to an instrument or a
measurement system, the instrument or the system cannot take up immediately its final steady
state position. It goes through a transient state before it finally settles to its final steady state
position. At times it becomes necessary to study the response of the system under both
transient as well as steady state conditions. In many applications, the transient response of the
system, i.e., the way system settles down to its final steady state conditions is more important
than the steady state response.
The transient response in the instruments is on account of the presence of energy storage
elements in the system, such as, electrical inductance and capacitance, mass, fluid and
thermal capacitances etc. The systems exhibit a characteristic of sluggishness on account of
presence of these elements. However many a times in several applications the measurement
systems are subjected to inputs which are not static but dynamic in nature, which means the
inputs vary with time. Since the input varies from instant to instant, so does the output. The
behaviour of the system under such conditions is described by the dynamic response of the
system and the characteristics of the measuring system under such conditions are known as
dynamic characteristics.
The dynamic characteristics of any measurement system are:
(i) Speed of response and Response time
(ii) Lag
(iii) Fidelity
(iv) Dynamic error
Out of the above four characteristics the Speed of Response and the Fidelity are desirable in a
dynamic system, while Lag and Dynamic error are undesirable.

The dynamic performance of an instrument is normally expressed by a differential equation

relating the input and output quantities. It is always convenient to express the input-output
dynamic characteristics in form of a linear differential equation. So, often a nonlinear
mathematical model is liberalised and expressed in the form:

Where, xi and x0 are the input and the output variables respectively. The above expression can
also be expressed in terms of a transfer function, as:

Normally m<n an n is called the order of the system. Commonly available sensor
characteristics can usually be approximated as either zero-th order, first order or second
order dynamics. Order of a system represents the energy storing elements it has. Here are few
such examples:

Potentiometer:
Zero order system (i.e only heat dissipating elements)
Displacement sensors using potentiometric principle have no energy storing elements. The
output voltage eo can be related with the input displacement xi by an algebraic equation:
where is the total length of the potentiometer and E is the excitation voltage.. So, it can be
termed as a zeroth order system.

Figure of potentiometer

Thermocouple
A bare thermocouple has a mass (m) of the junction. If it is immersed in a fluid at a
temperature Tf , then its dynamic performance relating the output voltage eo and the input
temperature Tf , can be expressed by the transfer function:

Hence, the bare thermocouple is a first order sensor. But if the bare
thermocouple is put inside a metallic protective well (as it is
normally done for industrial thermocouples) the order of the system
increases due to the additional energy storing element (thermal mass
of the well) and it becomes a second order system.
Seismic Sensor
Seismic sensors are commonly used for vibration or
acceleration measurement of foundations. The transfer
function between the input displacement xi and output
displacement
xo can be expressed as:

From the above transfer function, it can be easily

concluded that the seismic sensor is a second order system.
Dynamic characteristics specifications are normally referred to the referred to the
performance of the instrument with different test signals, e.g. impulse input, step input, ramp
input and sinusoidal input. Few important specifications are:

1. Delay time (td): The delay time is the time required for the response to reach half
the final value the very first time.
2. Rise time (tr): The rise time is the time required for the response to rise from
10% to 90%, 5% to 95%, or 0% to 100% of its final value. For underdamped
second-order systems, the 0% to 100% rise time is normally used. For overdamped
systems, the 10% to 90% rise time is commonly used.
 3. Peak time (tp):The peak time is the time required for the response to reach the
first peak of the overshoot.
4. Maximum (percent) overshoot (Mp): The maximum overshoot is the maximum
peak value of the response curve measured from unity. If the final steady-state
value of the response differs from unity, then it is common to use the maximum
percent overshoot. It is defined by

5. Settling time (ts): The settling time is the time required for the response curve to
reach and stay within a range about the final value of size specified by absolute
percentage of the final value (usually 2% or 5%). The settling time is related to the
largest time constant of the control system.

Sensors & Transducers:

Transducers: a device that converts one form of energy to another form of energy. The other
name for transducers is PICKUPS.
Sensor: a type of transducer that converts one form of energy into electrical form.
Actuator: a type of transducer that converts one form of energy into mechanical form.
Sensor may have different definitions in different spheres for ex: in Biotechnology the
definition will be different and in electronics it will be different.
We generally prefer converting physical energy to electrical energy because of many reasons
but most important reasons are:
 Amplification of electrical signal is done easily. Now suppose you want to measure some
mechanical form of energy and that is very small so detecting output will be difficult and if
we convert them to electrical signals it can be easily amplified as per need.
 The output when converted to electrical signals can easily be transmitted and processed.
Transducer can be divided in two parts. One is Sensing element and other is Transduction
element. Sensing element is a detector which is responsible for sensing the element or it is the
part which responds to phenomenon and Transduction element is used to transform the output
of sensing element to electrical output. So it is dependent on sensing element, basically it is
an electronic circuit.

So, there is lot of confusion between sensor and a transducer. You will notice that in literature
these two terms are frequently interchanged.

Classification of Transducers:
There are many principles on which a transducer can work like resistive, inductive, capacitive
etc. So Transducer can be categorized on the basis of four thoughts. On the basis of
transduction form it`s used, we can go further.

1. Primary and secondary type

2. Analog and digital type
3. Active and passive type
4. Transducer and Inverse type
Primary and Secondary Transducer:
o The primary transducer is also known as detector or sensor. It senses a physical
parameter such as pressure, humidity, temperature etc and converts it into suitable
physical parameter which is readable.
o The secondary transducer converts the output of primary transducer into electrical
signal.
Analog and Digital Transducer:
The analog transducer converts the input signal into an analog output which is continuous
function of time.
The digital transducer converts the input signal into an electrical output which is in the form
of pulses.

Active and Passive Transducer:

The active transducers are also called as self generating transducer. It is that type of
transducer which does not require any external (auxiliary) power supply to produce output.
The passive transducer is also known as externally powered transducer. It is that type of
transducer which requires an auxiliary power supply to produce output.

Transducers and Inverse transducer:

A Transducer can be broadly defined as a device which converts a non-electrical quantity into
an electrical quantity. Ex:-Resistive, inductive and capacitive transducers
An inverse transducer is defined as a device which converts an electrical quantity into a non-
electrical quantity. Ex:-Piezoelectric crystals

On the basis of transduction form used:

Resistive Transducers
1. Resistance Strain Gauge –
The change in value of resistance of metal semi-conductor due to elongation or compression
is known by the measurement of torque, displacement or force.
2. Resistance Thermometer –
The change in resistance of metal wire due to the change in temperature known by the
measurement of temperature.
3. Hot Wire Meter –
The change in resistance of a heating element due to convection cooling of a flow of gas is
known by its corresponding gas flow or pressure.
4. Photoconductive Cell –
The change in resistance of a cell due to a corresponding change in light flux is known by its
corresponding light intensity.
5. Thermistor –
The change in resistance of a semi-conductor that has a negative co-efficient of resistance is
known by its corresponding measure of temperature.
6. Potentiometer Type –
The change in resistance of a potentiometer reading due to the movement of the slider as a
part of an external force applied is known by its corresponding pressure or displacement.

Capacitance Transducers
1. Variable capacitance pressure gage –
Principle of operation: Distance between two parallel plates is varied by an externally applied
force Applications: Measurement of Displacement, pressure
2. Capacitor microphone Principle of operation: Sound pressure varies the capacitance
between a fixed plate and a movable diaphragm. Applications: Speech, music, noise
3. Dielectric gauge Principle of operation: Variation in capacitance by changes in the
dielectric. Applications: Liquid level, thickness

Inductance Transducers:
1. Differential transformer
The differential voltage of two secondary windings of a transformer is varied by positioning
the magnetic core through an externally applied force. Applications: Pressure, force,
displacement, position
2. Magnetic circuit transducer
Self inductance or mutual inductance of ac-excited coil is varied by changes in the magnetic
circuit. Applications: Pressure, displacement
3. Eddy current gage
Inductance of a coil is varied by the proximity of an eddy current plate. Applications:
Displacement, thickness

RESISTIVE TRANSDUSERS

A strain gauge(gage) is a device used

to measure strain on an object. The
most common type of strain gauge
consists of an insulating flexible
backing which supports a metallic foil
pattern. The gauge is attached to the
object by a suitable adhesive. As the
object is deformed, the foil is deformed,
causing its electrical resistance to
change. This resistance change, usually
measured using a Wheatstone bridge, is
related to the strain by the quantity
known as the gauge factor.

If external tensile force or compressive force

increases or decreases, the resistance
proportionally increases or decreases.
Suppose that original resistance R changes
by ΔR because of strain ε: the following
equation is set up

Where, Ks is a gage factor, expressing the sensitivity coefficient of strain gages. General-purpose strain
gages use copper-nickel or nickel-chrome alloy for the resistive elements, and the gage factor provided by
these alloys is approximately 2.
Gage factor for semiconductors is approx. 50 to 70 times that of the metals. For most metals
µ is 0.3 and thus G is at least 1.6.

Principles of Strain Measurement

Strain-initiated resistance change is extremely small. Thus, for strain measurement a
Wheatstone bridge is formed to convert the resistance change to a voltage change. Suppose
resistances (Ω) are R1, R2, R3 and R4 and the excitation voltage (V) is E. Then, the output
voltage e o (V) is obtained by the following equation:

Suppose the resistance R1 is a strain gage and it changes by ΔR due to strain. Then, the output
voltage is,

If R1 = R2 = R3 = R4 = R in the initial condition,

Since R may be regarded extremely larger than ΔR,

Strain Gauge based Blood Pressure Transducer:

Blood Pressure is the measure of force applied by the flow of blood onto the artery walls.
Cardiac output (CO) = heart rate (HR)stroke volume(SV)
Normal adult ranges for the five vital signs
Blood pressure: <120 mmHg systolic, , <80 mmHg diastolic
Respiratory rate: 12 - 18 breaths/min
Heart rate: 60 - 80 bpm at rest
Temperature: 96.8 - 99.50 F
Arterial saturation of oxygen: 93 - 100%
Intraarterial pressure transducer system

Pressure sensor components: a diaphragm, strain gauge, and Wheatstone bridge

Electromagnetic Blood flow transducer
• Measures instantaneous pulsatile flow of blood
• Based on the principle of electromagnetic induction
• The voltage induced in a conductor moving in a magnetic field is proportional
to the velocity of the conductor
• The conductive blood is the moving conductor