Prototype of a multispectral and multiwavelength pulse oximeter based on a BQJ sensor

Pulse oximetry is one of the most commonly employed monitoring modalities in critical care setting. Conventional pulse oximeters, use two leds and a photodiode to estimate the percentage of oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin, assuming that those are the only light absorbers in the blood. Nevertheless, the presence of other types of dyshemoglobin may invalidate their calibration. In this study, we employed a Buried Quad Junction photodetector in order to estimate the oxygen saturation using simultaneously lit leds. More precisely, a proof-of-principle was shown for developing an oximeter capable of estimating up to four types of hemoglobin simultaneously with a single led. Results from in vivo measurements obtained with this setup show that we successfully isolated the information of our interest for oxygen saturation estimation. These results were compared with a commercial device yielding acceptable estimations with a mean error of 1.3% of the oxygen saturation estimation.