Review of fiber-optic pressure sensors for biomedical and biomechanical applications

• Main Author: Roriz, Paulo
• Publication Date: 2013
• Other Authors: Frazão, Orlando, Lobo Ribeiro, Antonio B., Santos, José L., Simões, José A.
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Download full: http://hdl.handle.net/10284/7912
• topic: Animals; Biomechanical Phenomena; Blood Pressure; Fiber Optic Technology; Humans; Intracranial Pressure; Monitoring, Physiologic; Transducers, Pressure

As optical fibers revolutionize the way data is carried in telecommunications, the same is happening in the world of sensing. Fiber-optic sensors (FOS) rely on the principle of changing the properties of light that propagate in the fiber due to the effect of a specific physical or chemical parameter. We demonstrate the potentialities of this sensing concept to assess pressure in biomedical and biomechanical applications. FOSs are introduced after an overview of conventional sensors that are being used in the field. Pointing out their limitations, particularly as minimally invasive sensors, is also the starting point to argue FOSs are an alternative or a substitution technology. Even so, this technology will be more or less effective depending on the efforts to present more affordable turnkey solutions and peer-reviewed papers reporting in vivo experiments and clinical trials.