Flexible Thin-Film PVDF-TrFE Based Pressure Sensor for Smart Catheter Applications
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Flexible Thin-Film PVDF-TrFE Based Pressure Sensor for Smart Catheter Applications TUSHAR SHARMA,1,2 KEVIN AROOM,3 SAHIL NAIK,1 BRIJESH GILL,3 and JOHN X. J. ZHANG1,2 1
Department of Biomedical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, 107W Dean Keeton Street Stop C0800, Austin, TX 78712, USA; 2Center for Nano and Molecular Science, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA; and 3The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77026, USA (Received 17 August 2012; accepted 19 November 2012; published online 1 December 2012) Associate Editor Tingrui Pan oversaw the review of this article.
from within the vascular system can avoid the need for large, morbid incisions to access these deep-lying structures. Injuries of the largest blood vessel in the body, the aorta, are now routinely managed by these techniques.2,12,15,29 In order to treat other major vessels with more complex anatomy, it is desirable to be able to monitor perfusion pressures at multiple sites along an interventional catheter. Sensors capable of such pressure monitoring will allow the determination of hemorrhage control in the artery of interest, the adequacy of residual flow in other vascular beds, and direction of flow between sensors. However, lumen space within the catheter must be preserved for other interventional apparatus, putting constraints on the size and bulkiness of the extant implantable pressure sensors. Implantable pressure sensors have been a topic of interest since the 1950s.5,19,29 Currently, the commonly employed pressure sensors use optical,7,13,14,23 piezoresistive6,8,21,30 or capacitive1,4,20,22 technology. Such sensors are bulky, however, which makes them unsuitable for use in catheters, which must have internal space for interventional apparatus. Further, the stiffness imparted to the catheter by such sensors is highly undesirable. A compact, flexible pressure sensor would allow development of an interventional catheter that includes multiple points of pressure measurement, including inflation pressure as well as upstream and downstream blood pressure. Figure 1 shows the schematic of such a catheter mounted with two sensors on either side a balloon catheter. In this study, we report the development of flexible, compact structures for biosensing application using piezoelectric materials, which could be easily integrated on curved surfaces of catheters. Conventionally used piezoelectric materials for pressure sensing applications,3,36 like PZT, BaTiO3, show high piezoelectricity34
Abstract—We demonstrate the design of thin flexible pressure sensors based on piezoelectric PVDF-TrFE (polyvinyledenedifluoride-tetrafluoroethylene) co-polymer film, which can be integrated onto a catheter, where the compact inner lumen space limit the dimensions of the pressure sensors. Previously, we demonstrated that the thin-film sensors of one micrometer thickness were shown to have better performance compared to the thicker film with no additional electrical poling or mechanical stretching due to higher crystallini
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