Measurement of Human Blood Pressure using MEMS Pressure Sensor

Abstract

This work demonstrates the design and analysis of MEMS pressure sensors for the measurement of blood pressure. A silicon-based MEMS device has been designed and analyzed for the accurate measurement of pressure induced by the blood on veins. Blood pressure (BP) is one of the vital indicators to diagnose the human body's health condition. BP measurement is a mandatory pre-test to identify many of the diseases. In this work, a thin silicon diaphragm is designed which will sense the blood pressure. The proposed structure has multiple layers of silicon stacked above the other. A central vacuum cavity is created below the thin diaphragm and its outer surrounding edges are sealed with the silicon base. The silicon diaphragm senses the pressure induced by the blood and it can be measured by recording the change in its displacement. The entire structure has a steel basement and can be easily integrated with the BP measuring instrument. The design and analysis of the proposed sensor are done by using a Finite Element Method (FEM) tool. The maximum displacement and average displacement of the silicon diaphragm is recorded and the obtained results show that the proposed MEMS device accurately measures the blood pressure in the human body.