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Sensor packaging design for continuous underfoot load monitoring

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Abstract

Continuous force measurement can provide valuable insight to the efficacy of limb loading regimes during fracture rehabilitation. Currently there is no load monitoring device that is capable of more than 1 h of continuous recording. To enable continuous underfoot load monitoring a piezoresistive pressure sensor was encapsulated in a non-compressible silicone gel. This basic approach to signal transduction was implemented in three continuous underfoot load sensor designs. Design I constrained the gel in a rigid urethane housing. Design II constrained the gel in a silicone elastomer bladder. Design III utilized a hybrid approach by constraining the gel with a rigid upperplate inside of an elastomeric bladder. All three designs were subjected to bench and human testing. Design I outperformed the other two designs showing high linearity (correlation coefficient of 1), low static drift (<1%) and low dynamic drift (<3%) and captured the largest percentage of weight during human testing (35%). The sensor was designed, tested and shown to be durable and accurate for a 2 week window of time. This sensor has the low cost and high performance required for large scale clinical tests to correlate limb loading and fracture healing rates.

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Abbreviations

PCB:

printed circuit board

ADC:

analogue to digital conversion

UV:

ultraviolet

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Eric Rubie and Jack Sites at Stealth Composites for valuable assistance during cyclic testing. This project was funded by a Microgrant from the University of Utah Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, 72 S. Central Campus Dr., Rm 2646, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Kylee North

  2. Department of Orthopeadics, University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics, 590 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT, 84108, USA

    Erik N. Kubiak

  3. Department of Bioengineering, University of Utah, 72 S. Central Campus Drive, Rm. 2646, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Robert W. Hitchcock

Authors
  1. Kylee North
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  2. Erik N. Kubiak
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  3. Robert W. Hitchcock
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Correspondence to Robert W. Hitchcock.

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North, K., Kubiak, E.N. & Hitchcock, R.W. Sensor packaging design for continuous underfoot load monitoring. Biomed Microdevices 14, 217–224 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10544-011-9599-2

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