MEMS based intracranial pressure monitoring sensor

Intracranial Pressure (ICP) is associated with the brain of the body and therefore monitoring of ICP is having a vital role in various diagnostic procedures of patients with head injuries and trauma. Conventionally, invasive methods are used for ICP monitoring which involve surgical procedures. This work proposes a non-invasive, MEMS based capacitive pressure sensor using Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (CMUT) for sensing increased ICP. This sensor could be useful for neurosurgeons and medical researchers. The MEMS based CMUT is designed using COMSOL Multiphysics choosing dimensions based on the results obtained in mathematical analysis and Genetic Algorithm optimization using GATOOL in MATLAB. The sensor provides a sensitivity of 1 kPa to 2 GPa thus giving a capacitance output of 863 to 1150 fF respectively.