FIBER-OPTIC-LINKED PRESSURE SENSOR

There is a critical need and very large marked for a miniature ultra-low pressure transducer to monitor pressure within confined body spaces for both animal and human application. Thus BioTechPlex proposes to develop such a pressure sensor system with wide dynamic and ultra fine resolution. This Fiber-Optic-Linked Pressure Sensor (FOLPS) is based on sensing the pressure-induced deflection on a 1 mm corrugated membrane using a laser diode, fiber-optics and amplitude modulation. Our short term objective is to produce and introduce into market the FOLPS for animal application. Our long term goal is to establish as the preferred pressure measurement system for a wide variety of animal and human application. BioTechPlex is convinced that the FOLPS will be a blockbuster marketing success based on: 1) the projected rapid double digit growth in the biomedical pressure monitoring market; 2) the market-oriented FOLPS design; and 3) the technological innovations of the FOLPS that enable robust measurements to be made with high stability and repeatability. Specifically, BioTechPlex will accomplish the following three objectives in Phase I. I: Demonstrate the feasibility of fabricating a suitable miniature corrugated membrane pressure sensor using Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEMS) technologies. II. Develop the optical measurement system using laser diode, fiber-optics, and amplitude modulation. III: Integrate the FOLPS to a system to measure realtime pulmonary function analysis using the MatLab platform.