PROJECT TITLE :

Flexible Distributed Pressure Sensing Strip for a Urethral Catheter

ABSTRACT:

A multi-sensor flexible strip is developed for a urethral catheter to live distributed pressure during a human urethra. The developed sensor strip has necessary clinical applications in urodynamic testing for analyzing the causes of urinary incontinence in patients. There are two major challenges in the development of the sensor. First, a highly sensitive sensor strip that is versatile enough for urethral insertion into somebody's body is required. Second, the sensor has to work reliably in a liquid in vivo surroundings in the human body. Capacitive force sensors are designed and micro-fabricated using polyimide/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates and copper electrodes. To remove the parasitic influence of urethral tissues, which produce fringe capacitance that can result in significant errors, a reference fringe capacitance measurement sensor is incorporated on the strip. The sensing strip is embedded on a catheter and experimental in vitro analysis is presented using a bench-prime pressure chamber. The sensors on the strip are in a position to produce the desired sensitivity and also the vary. Preliminary experimental results additionally show promise that by using measurements from the reference parasitic sensor on the strip, the influence of parasitics from human tissue on the pressure measurements can be removed. [2014-0316]