design-and-simulation-of-implantable-blood-pressure-sensor-using-2018 (1)

Design and Simulation of Implantable
Blood Pressure Sensor Using COMSOL
Multiphysics
K.S.N. Murthy, M. Siva Kumar, K. Suma Bindu, K. Satyanarayana,
D. Sivateja and G. Sai Hemanth
Abstract This paper presents the design and simulation of blood pressure sensor
for healthcare and biomedical applications. Generally blood pressure can be mea-
sured by using sensors externally, but here is an implantable sensor which is used
for continuous monitoring of blood pressure. The software used is COMSOL
Multiphysics, a general purpose software platform for modelling and simulating the
advanced applications. This work describes the design of nanotube-based sensor
with a basic known technology of MEMS. The main physics used in this design is
solid mechanics and time-dependent analysis which is performed to certain values
of pressure that is applied on the model. The pressure versus displacement analysis
is performed, and it is observed that the pressure is directly proportional to dis-
placement. The device performance is compared by using materials like Si and Au.
The result shows that Au has good sensitivity than Si which is verified by cali-
bration method.
Keywords Blood pressure Displacement Biomedical applications COMSOL
K.S.N. Murthy (&)M. Siva Kumar K. Suma Bindu K. Satyanarayana D. Sivateja 
G. Sai Hemanth
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, K L University,
Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh, India
e-mail: [email protected]
M. Siva Kumar
e-mail: [email protected]
K. Suma Bindu
e-mail: [email protected]
K. Satyanarayana
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Sivateja
e-mail: [email protected]
G. Sai Hemanth
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
R. Singh et al. (eds.), Intelligent Communication, Control and Devices,
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 624,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5903-2_117
1119

1 Introduction
An innovative technology, which has many attractions like miniaturization, low
power consumption, performing multiple operations with single equipment, is
MEMS. The technology of MEMS indicates that it produces the devices with the
combination of both electrical and mechanical components [1]. The main advantage
of MEMS is its size which ranges between few micrometres to millimetres. MEMS
devices have greater ability in many domains like sensing, actuating and controlling
[1]. The MEMS-based sensors can be used for biomedical applications also [5].
Bio-MEMS devices can be manufactured based on the operation of various
parameters like temperature, pressure, capacitance, voltage and current. This paper
provides a brief idea about blood pressure detection using pressure as a sensing
element [2]. Pressure is an important parameter in real-life applications. It is defined
as force per unit area [3]. The mathematical expression of pressure is
Pressure pðÞ= Force/Area ð1Þ
Blood pressure measurement which is the most important routine check-up in
order to have well-being health. The normal blood pressure can be expressed in
terms of systolic over diastolic pressure as 120/80 (mmHg) [6]. Systolic is the
highest level of our blood pressure when the heart beats and diastolic is lowest level
of our BP as heart relaxes between beats.
This raise and fall of blood pressure leads to many diseases.
1. High BP leads to hypertension which causes heart attacks or strokes, trouble
with memory.
2. Low BP causes hypotension which results in dizziness, fainting, diarrhoea, etc.
In general, blood pressure can be measured by using some instruments like
sphygmomanometer and some asculatory methods. But these instruments have a
limitation that they cannot detect blood pressure when the body has mobility. So, a
design of MEMS-based sensor is proposed to implant in a human body, which is
used for continuous monitoring of blood pressure [4,6]. This helps the doctor to
provide an early detection and an efficient treatment to the patients suffering with
blood pressure. The implantable pressure sensor is interfaced to an external circuit
for the wireless monitoring and digital display of blood pressure. The sensor is
connected to RF microcontroller, a balun network and a chip antenna [4,7] (Figs. 1
and 2).
The total work is performed with the help of software named COMSOL
Multiphysics. COMSOL Multiphysics is finite element analyser, solver and simu-
lation software for various physics and engineering applications [6]. The virtual
blood pressure sensor model is designed using this tool followed by simulations.
This paper describes a model for continuous monitoring of blood pressure using a
nanotube-based design and also its analysis by using various parameters [9].
1120 K.S.N. Murthy et al.

2 Design Procedure
A virtual view of the model is designed in COMSOL [8], which has various physics
and engineering applications. A 3D structure is developed by considering solid
mechanics as the main physics which is a part of structural mechanics [6]. There are
many different analysers present in the tool among which the time-dependent
analysis is selected as the variations in blood pressure are observed with respect to
time.
When the model is taken into consideration, the design is a nanotube-based
sensor which is almost identical to cantilever sensor [10]. A component needs to be
created which has many designing facilities like geometry, definitions, materials,
physics used and meshing. In geometry, a cylindrical structure is designed with
some dimensions like height and radius. Similarly, another cylindrical structure is
designed and placed inside the first cylinder by using Booleans and partitions in
Fig. 1 An asculatory method
to measure blood pressure
Fig. 2 Measurement of
blood pressure using
manometer
Design and Simulation of Implantable Blood Pressure Sensor …1121

geometry. The structure has fixed base at one end and free suspension at other end.
Since it is an implantable sensor, the size is an important parameter [6]. The
structure is designed in micrometres (µm), as the diameter of the blood vessels
where the sensor is placed is in micrometre range. A height of 8 µm and radius of
2µm are used for design. After the structural design is performed, the sensing
ability should be developed. As pressure is the main sensing parameter, some load
like boundary or point load is applied to the design with the help of definitions in
the tool. The materials like silicon (Si) and gold (Au) are opted by selecting the
required domains in the model. In material analysis, the Young’s modulus and
Poisson ratio of Si and Au are considered.
For silicon,
1. Poisson ratio = 0.17
2. Young’s modulus = 150 GPa
For gold,
1. Poisson ratio = 0.42
2. Young’s modulus = 79 GPa
Meshing is performed which is a finite element analyser. Some parameters like
pressure and displacement are created by entering certain values of pressure in
Pa/kPa. The ranges of values between 5 and 11 kPa are provided. The model is
simulated for a required amount of selected time. After computation, the dis-
placement is recorded with the variation of pressure.
3 Simulation and Analysis Using COMSOL
The designed model is simulated with the help of COMSOL, and analysis is per-
formed by varying dimensions of the sensor, material and pressure.
Some values of pressure that is higher and lower to normal blood pressure
120/80 are given to the model. Different boundary loads are applied at the free end,
and their displacements are recorded simultaneously. The graphical analysis is also
performed along with the simulation result.
3.1 Analysis
3.1.1 Material Analysis Using Si and Au
The working performance of the sensor changes with change in material. The
model is simulated by using silicon and gold materials. The operating conditions
change when different values of pressure are applied. The simulations and values of
displacement for different values of pressure are recorded (Figs. 3and 4; Table 1).
1122 K.S.N. Murthy et al.

Fig. 3 Simulation of nano tube sensor for blood pressure sensor using silicon
Fig. 4 Simulation of blood pressure sensor using gold
Design and Simulation of Implantable Blood Pressure Sensor …1123