Whenever a heart beats, it pumps blood into arteries. Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of those arteries. Blood pressure is a central vital sign in a range of critical care situations such as surgery.
Pressure sensors form core components of all blood pressure monitoring systems. Reliability and accuracy are vitally important because these sensors are tasked with relaying critical information.
The Challenge
Merit Sensor Systems was approached by a medical device company and asked to develop a pressure sensor for critical care blood pressure monitoring. The monitor would have to meet the customer’s requirements for accuracy and reliability, but it also had to be constructed to withstand a range of rigorous settings within the healthcare industry.
The Solution
Merit Medical Systems, Inc. is a leading designer, developer, and manufacturer of medical devices. Merit Sensor is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merit Medical Systems, Inc. and as such, it was able to leverage its existing relationship with its parent company to fully comprehend how blood pressure systems are employed in patient monitoring and surgical settings.
Meetings were held with Merit Medical employees in order to make the best use of their clinical-use experience in patient monitoring and in order to gain a sense of how these systems are being used on a daily basis.
Additionally, the team from Merit Sensor was able to learn from the expertise of engineers from Merit Medical, gaining important insights into the way that the medical industry manufactures and tests pressure-monitoring systems.
By making use of this array of expertise, Merit Sensor could design, manufacture and then test a sensor which not only meet industry requirements for reliability and accuracy, but also one that strongly correlates with customer test procedures while being well suited to the demanding nature of the healthcare industry.
BP Series Blood Pressure Sensor.
The Results
The collaboration with the Merit Medical team allowed Merit Sensor to develop a better understanding of both the needs of the customer and the product's potential applications.
Thanks to that knowledge, Merit Sensor's engineers were able to produce an accurate and reliable blood pressure sensor. Not only does this system comfortably meet the customer's performance requirements – both now and in the future, but the system is also more than able to withstand the challenging environments it is likely to be used within.
The result of this collaboration - the BP Series Blood Pressure Sensor - is RoHS-compliant and conforms to the AAMI BP22 specification. It also has an exceptional burst pressure typical of +800 psi.
About Merit Sensor
One size does not fit all. Whether it is design assistance, custom products or smaller volumes, clients need flexible solutions instead of rigid excuses.
In addition to our standard products, we offer an array of design and manufacturing services.
As the leader in piezoresistive pressure sensing, we are ready and able to address key issues such as media compatibility, sensitivity or packaging feasibility. Instead of searching for and interfacing with a variety of sources, we’ll get you the answers you need to get your products up and running quickly.
Design
We offer the following design services:
- Customization (sensitivity, resistance, bridge configurations, pressure ranges, pressure types, packages, etc.)
- Analysis (application, media, packaging etc.)
- Verification (prototyping, testing, etc.)
If we can’t do it for you, we will likely know who can and we will refer you to them.
Manufacturing
Because we own and operate our own wafer fabrication facility, we can offer the following manufacturing services:
- Customized manufacturing
- Selected contract manufacturing
- Small volume runs
Considering the years we have been in business, chances are we have or can create a solution for you.
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