ECE 117 Mini-Project Design Proposal

Blood Pressure Monitor using Oscillometric Method

Avanzado, Karen Astrud Eliza D., Nario, Patricia Verone, Ramos, Carlos Luigi R.

I.

Oscillometric Method for Blood Pressure Monitoring Explained

The oscillometric method is a non invasive method of measuring blood pressure. It utilizes the
pressure pulsations taken during measurements. An occluding cuff is placed on the arm and is
connected to a pressure sensor. The cuff is inflated until a pressure greater than the typical systolic
value is reached (around 150-160mmHg - 30mmHg above the prospective systolic blood pressure).
The cuff is slowly deflated and when systolic pressure value approaches, pulsations start to appear.
These pulsations represent the pressure changes due to heart ventricle contraction and can be used to
calculate the heartbeat rate. Pulsations grow in amplitude until mean arterial pressure (MAP) is
reached, then decrease until they disappear (NXP.com). From the pulsations and the value of the MAP,
we could compute and solve for the systolic and diastolic pressure.

II.

Initial Choice of Sensor

Various types of pressure sensors can be used in measuring the air pressure from the arm cuff using
in blood pressure monitoring. Sample projects over the internet made use of piezoresistive silicon
transducers that acts as low-cost pressure sensors. One of the sensor used is the MP3V5050, differential
and gauge pressure sensor with the following characteristics:

Upon checking the availability with local electronics shop, the available model in E-Gizmo is the
OMRON 2SMPP-02 Gauge Pressure Sensor which can also meet the standard blood pressures (up
to 120mmHg = 16kPa).

III.

Online References

A. Pressure Sensor Datasheet

Internet: OMRON 2SMPP-02
https://www.omron.com/ecb/products/sensor/special/mems/pdf/AN-2SMPP02-01EN_r1.pdf
https://www.omron.com/ecb/products/pdf/en-2smpp-02.pdf
B. Sensor Circuitry
Lopez, Santiago. Blood Pressure Monitor Fundamentals and Design Internet:
http://www.nxp.com/files/32bit/doc/app_note/AN4328.pdf?tid=AMdlDR. Dec 2012.
C. Blood Pressure Measurement Operating Principles
K.S.Thangavelu. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor Machine Internet:
http://www.frontline-electronics.com/contest/htmlcontest/SubmittedProjects.htm. 2008.

IV.

Schematics and Expected Waveforms

For this project, the inflating and deflating of the arm cuff will be done manually using a manual
blood pressure monitor. There will be two waveforms that will be produced. One is for the actual
pressure signal in the cuff and the other is for the fluctuations in the pressure signal.
Complete Circuit Diagram

A. Sensor Circuit Driver

The pressure sensor is designed to convert a voltage by means of constant current drive, produced
by the first op-amp biased by a resistive divider and input Vdd(+5V DC).

B. Input Stage (Differential Amplifier)

=
(+, , ) = 196 (+, , )
5.1
Since the output of the pressure sensor is the differential voltage seen at the Vout+ and Voutterminals, its output voltage is fed onto a differential op-amp for amplification, since the standard
output voltages are in the mV range. An op-amp buffer connection is then used to couple the
output to the next stages.
C. 10-Hz Low-pass Filter Stage

1
= 10.61 10
2 15 1

A signal is passed through a 10 Hz RC low-pass filter (LPF) composed of a resistor and a

capacitor in order to remove high-frequency noise. Another op-amp buffer connection is used to
couple the output of the LPF to remove loading effects on the other stages. The output from the
buffer circuit is where the arterial pressure measurements are taken.
D. 2.2Hz High-pass Filter

1
= 2.19 2.2
2 33 2.2

The signal is then filtered again with a 2.2 Hz RC high-pass filter which can pass the signal at
desired frequencies and removing its DC component.

E. Non-Inverting Op-amp (Gain Stage)

100
= 101
1
The gain stage is then connected so that cuff oscillations after the HPF can be distinguished
better. The schematic shown above includes the HPF of the previous stage to show the DC
voltage offset to be applied for the output of the fluctuation signal.
= 1 +

F. 10Hz Low-pass Filter Stage

1
= 10.61 10
2 15 1

The last stage is to filter the signal with another 10 Hz RC LPF so high-frequency noise can be
removed.
Expected Output from the Sensor Circuit
The figure below shows the fluctuations observed in an occluding cuff as the pressure is initially
raised just above the systolic pressure and then gradually dropped to nearly low at that point the
fluctuations are disappears. The second graph shows the cardiac synchronous oscillations present in
the cuff pressure which, as indicated above, vary with the cuff pressure. The graph shows the pulse are
started at smaller amplitudes when the cuff pressure reduced above or nearly equal to systolic pressure
and it stopped just below the diastolic pressure. These fluctuation are used to calculate the blood
pressure.

Ps is the pressure above Pm at which As/Am = 0.55

Pd is the pressure below Pm at which Ad/Am = 0.85
V.

Test and Development Plan

The following milestones will be implemented throughout the project duration:
Design and Simulations
Procurement of necessary components
Hardware connection of the pressure sensor to the tube of the manual sphygmomanometer
Building the sensor circuit
Testing the prototype
Sample Measurements