PTA balloon catheter integrated electroactive polymer transducer for sensing vascular blockage and disturbing vessel plaques

This paper presents a novel ellipsoid-shaped soft and biocompatible device which can be integrated with a percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) balloon catheter for biomedical application. The device contains a 3-dimentional electroactive polymer core element and is packaged by PDMS with villi structure around the center region of the device (Fig. 1). The core element is made of ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) with a unique hollow design to allow the catheter passing through and can be anchored at an arbitrary position of the catheter. The core element possesses radial directional displacement and force sensing functions without using external electricity and can actuate the villi made on the PDMS housing of the device to generate forced perturbation. The ellipsoidal PDMS housing reduces flow resistance during operation and extends the device lifetime. The developed device detecting the fat accumulation around a blood vessel phantom is successfully demonstrated.