What are Medical Sensors?

Ultra-Fine Wires Wound into Miniature Coils Permit Manufacturing of a Plethora of Tiny Medical Sensors 

In the popular science-fiction movie Fantastic Voyage, a submarine and its crew were shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the body of an important scientist. Their mission was to find their way to the brain and operate on a blood clot, thus saving the scientist’s life. Although no one will be shrinking scientists anytime soon, science is catching up to science fiction in the field of medical sensors. What are medical sensors and why are they important? 

Minimally invasive sensors and procedures allow doctors to:

• Reach otherwise inaccessible regions of the body
• Freeze and heat tumors to eliminate them, also known as cryo cancer treatment
• Minimize disruption of body functions
• Minimize energy consumption
• Increase the lifetime of implants

Making miniature coils and ultra-fine wires for minimally invasive medical sensors is limited to a handful of manufacturers worldwide with extensive know-how and experience. The need for tiny medical sensors is growing while awareness of these technologies is spreading among designers. Manufacturing these sensors requires extremely precise, custom-made equipment that must be designed and built in-house.

Applications

The applications of these medical sensors include:

• Diagnostics: wireless communication with miniature implants used as sensors for vital signs.
• Implants: active implants that monitor and control miniature pacemakers and deep brain stimulation. 
• Therapeutic applications: electrophysiology treatments. 
• Navigation: targeted drug delivery, targeted radiation catheters, stent positioning, highly-accurate ablations, implanted markers, and inter-body tagging.
• Temperature measurement: miniature thermocouple based on thermo-pressure molecular bonding technology.
• Orthopedic aids: connecting micro-coils to the operating system using electromagnetic pulses.

Manufacturing Requirements

There are several requirements for manufacturing coils used in medical sensors:

• Coils must be made according to predetermined specifications provided by the client.
• The coils are manufactured to very high standards, followed by a strict array of quality checks. The goal is to prevent faults of any kind.
• Special equipment is required. Machines of this nature are not used by the standard coil makers, nor can you buy a machine that can wind miniature coils. You need to design and build it from scratch.
• The manufacturing facility must be ISO 13485 approved and is subject to inspection by clients.
• Material traceability is maintained. If necessary, materials can be traced back to the quarry where the raw material was found.
• More common traces are available, and include determining who made the device, when it was made, which worker produced it, etc.

What’s Unique about a Company that Makes Miniature Coils?

Ultra-fine wires provide connectivity to miniature medical sensors. Copper and other metals are used at any diameter, down to 59 AWG (9 microns or 0.00035 inches). The wires are 5-10 times thinner than a human hair. The winding machines are almost always built by the coil manufacturer. This requires state-of-the-art micro-motion and control systems. 

Connectivity Solutions

Micro-coils are one component in a system. Heat-based soldering of ultra-fine wires causes many bad effects, including oxidation of the connection, poor conductivity, heat damage, degraded connections, etc. The solution to all these problems is thermo-pressure bonding technology developed by Benatav. This technology enables you to connect ultra-fine wires at any diameter to other ultra-fine wires at a similar diameter or wires up to 12 times as thick. 

If design requirements require the use of a terminal-based connection, then the wires are connected to a gold-plated terminal. Molecular connections formed by thermo-pressure bonding provide highly reliable, corrosion-free and strain-free connectivity without soldering. The result is simplified manufacturing and lower costs.

Getting Started Using Coils in Medical Sensors

To create miniature medical sensors requires a manufacturer uniquely qualified to insulate the ultra-fine wires and produce micro-coils. Benatav Advanced Winding Technologies is ready to help you with any questions or concerns about your product. To contact them, please phone +972-3-934 5951 or go to www.benatav.com.