Design of elastic component of optic intensity force sensing catheter based on finite element analysis

This paper presents a design method of a miniaturized force sensing elastic component for the cardiac catheter. It is used to sense the contact force between the interaction of the catheter tip and surrounding tissue. A spring-like elastic structure was designed to accomplish its function. The method based on the finite element analysis (FEA) was proposed to help design the spring-like structure. The experiment was carried out to calibrate the material property and verify its feasibility. Simulations with variable spring parameters were done to investigate the effects of the stiffness to the micro deformation. Results indicate that the proposed structure can provide a good force sensing capability.