A Guimerà et al 2008 Physiol. Meas. 29 S279 doi:10.1088/0967-3334/29/6/S24
A Guimerà1, E Calderón2, P Los3 and A M Christie3
Show affiliationsBio-impedance measurements can be used to detect and monitor several properties of living hard-tissues, some of which include bone mineral density, bone fracture healing or dental caries detection. In this paper a simple method and hardware architecture for hard tissue bio-impedance measurement is proposed. The key design aspects of such architecture are discussed and a commercial handheld ac impedance device is presented that is fully certified to international medical standards. It includes a 4-channel multiplexer and is capable of measuring impedances from 10 kΩ to 10 MΩ across a frequency range of 100 Hz to 100 kHz with a maximum error of 5%. The device incorporates several user interface methods and a Bluetooth link for bi-directional wireless data transfer. Low-power design techniques have been implemented, ensuring the device exceeds 8 h of continuous use. Finally, bench test results using dummy cells consisting of parallel connected resistors and capacitors, from 10 kΩ to 10 MΩ and from 20 pF to 100 pF, are discussed.
87.64.-t Spectroscopic and microscopic techniques in biophysics and medical physics
06.20.fb Standards and calibration
87.19.R- Mechanical and electrical properties of tissues and organs
Issue 6 (June 2008)
Received 30 November 2007, accepted for publication 23 April 2008
Published 11 June 2008
A Guimerà et al 2008 Physiol. Meas. 29 S279
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