3D printed blood pressure sensor

Abstract

Current blood pressure monitoring technology are mostly built using the principle of pressure cuffs. This method of blood pressure monitoring requires the user to be in a seated and stationary position and is not very portable. With the increasing severity of cardio vascular diseases, there is a need to innovate new ways of monitoring blood pressure in a more convenient and portable manner. Wearable sensors have become a huge area of interest for health monitoring due to its capability to offer non-invasive, real-time and convenient monitoring of health parameters. With the emergence of 3D printing of electronics, thin flexible circuits can now be printed. This project showcases the improvements as well as limitations of how printed circuits can be implemented instead of the conventional circuits to create a functional wearable sensor to measure blood pressure. The conventional circuit to measure heart parameters such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) was successfully converted to a compact flexible printed circuit able to produce accurate heart beat rhythm at the location at the heart. Methods of non-invasive blood pressure measurement techniques are researched on such as methods involving Electrocardiography and Photo plethysmography (PPG). These methods are made as physical circuits first and once the circuit is proven to work, they are fabricated as flexible printed circuits. These printed circuits are made as wearable patches that can be pasted on the chest and are checked if there are improvements in weight, size, and portability and if accurate blood pressure can be produced when compared to an FDA approved electronic blood pressure monitor. The resultant product is achieved and the improvements in the aforementioned parameters were observed and quantified.