Artificial respiration
MEMS sensor module for respiratory applications
Around 500,000 people in Europe die of sudden cardiac arrest each year. According to the European Council for Resuscitation, a large number of those affected could be saved with improved first-aid measures. To improve the quality of first-aid medical care when a patient suffers a cardiac arrest, Hahn-Schickard has developed an MEMS-based intelligent ventilation system in collaboration with the filter specialist Küfner.
Breathing analysis
Just like "breathing – breathing aids" go together, artificial respiration and monitoring are an inseparable unit. The primary task of monitoring is to identify acute situations that are potentially dangerous for the patient and to notify the nursing staff or the doctor to take control and intervene via audible and visual warnings. Furthermore, monitoring makes it possible to detect slow changes in the artificial ventilation at an early stage and to prevent the occurrence of potentially critical conditions by taking appropriate measures. Artificial ventilation monitoring represents a part of general intensive care monitoring and is divided into three components: monitoring the pulmonary gas exchange, the respiratory mechanics, and respiratory monitoring. The requirement for minimally intensive methods, especially for long-term therapies, requires reliable and robust sensor systems with a low weight and low power consumption, and which are very comfortable to wear. A sensor platform based on MEMS is able to meet these requirements outstandingly.
Your partner for deep breathing
The heart of the system for near-patient measurement, analysis and control of respiratory flow when providing first aid to accident victims or when administering anesthesia lies in the simultaneous measurement of lung volume and the exhaled CO2 concentration directly in the main respiratory flow in order to monitor patient status in real time. System features include:
- a complex and reliable multi-sensor system for the highly dynamic and synchronous measurement of flow (spirometry) and CO2 concentration (capnometry) in gases for the demanding requirements of patient-side respiratory gas measurement.
- Reliable measurement of the CO2 content in moist respiratory gas through thermal MEMS sensors.
- The extendable sensor platform with a high integration level allows the system to be easily integrated into other systems, thereby causing an expected drop in the system price. As a result, it can be used in applications that were previously unattainable.
- Thanks to the fusion of sensor data that is formed from the combination of the individual measured values, additional conclusions can be drawn that demonstrate the performance and added value of the miniaturized sensor platform.
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