A multi-sensor flexible strip is developed for a urethral catheter to measure distributed pressure in a human urethra. The developed sensor strip has important clinical applications in urodynamic testing for analyzing the causes of urinary incontinence in patients. There are two major challenges in the development of the sensor. First, a highly sensitive sensor strip that is flexible enough for urethral insertion into a human body is required. Second, the sensor has to work reliably in a liquid in vivo environment in the human body. Capacitive force sensors are designed and micro-fabricated using polyimide/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates and copper electrodes. To remove the parasitic influence of urethral tissues, which create fringe capacitance that can lead to significant errors, a reference fringe capacitance measurement sensor is incorporated on the strip. The sensing strip is embedded on a catheter and experimental in vitro evaluation is presented using a bench-top pressure chamber. The sensors on the strip are able to provide the required sensitivity and the range. Preliminary experimental results also show promise that by using measurements from the reference parasitic sensor on the strip, the influence of parasitics from human tissue on the pressure measurements can be removed.

中文翻译：

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用于尿道导管的柔性分布式压力传感带

为尿道导管开发了一种多传感器柔性带，用于测量人体尿道中的分布压力。开发的传感带在尿动力学测试中具有重要的临床应用，可用于分析患者尿失禁的原因。传感器的发展有两个主要挑战。首先，需要高度灵敏的传感带，其柔韧性足以将尿道插入人体。其次，传感器必须在人体的液体体内环境中可靠地工作。电容式力传感器是使用聚酰亚胺/聚二甲基硅氧烷 (PDMS) 基板和铜电极设计和微制造的。为了消除尿道组织的寄生影响，这些影响会产生可能导致重大错误的边缘电容，带上装有参考边缘电容测量传感器。传感带嵌入在导管上，并使用台式压力室进行体外实验评估。条带上的传感器能​​够提供所需的灵敏度和范围。初步实验结果还表明，通过使用来自条带上的参考寄生传感器的测量值，可以消除人体组织的寄生参数对压力测量值的影响。