ECE 3710 Application Notes

Sudarsan Pranatharthikaran
GTID: 902812395
Major: Biomedical Engineering



Application: Blood Glucose Meter

Sources: http://www.maximintegrated.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/4659
http://cache.freescale.com/files/microcontrollers/doc/app_note/AN4364.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucose_meter


Introduction:

The glucose meter is a biomedical device created for the intent of determining the
glucose concentration in the blood of the patient. This device is very important and
necessary for people who need to constantly monitor their blood glucose levels such as
individuals with diabetes or hypoglycemia. To the use the device, one must take a prick
of blood and place it on the test strip connected to the meter. The blood glucose meter
will then read and calculate the blood glucose level and display it on the screen provided
in units of mg/dl or mmol/l.


Diagram:


(Picture of an Electrochemical blood glucose meter)





(Picture of the circuit that converts the current provided by the blood glucose to a voltage
for the device to read.)


(General Structure of a Blood Glucose Meter)



(This shows the amplification and filtering process of the circuit.)







(Table showing an example of the ADC to glucose value converter)

Explanation:
1.) Circuit:
a. The input is the test strip containing the blood in order to determine the
glucose levels. The output is the blood glucose level determined through the
voltage and frequency of the signal. The input in this specific circuit is the
outputs from the TRIAMPs which is the voltage and the output in this case is
the amplified voltage.
b. This can be found in the analysis section
c. The circuit amplifies the voltage and at the end of the circuit there is a low
pass filter, which filters out higher frequencies, specifically 8 Hz for this
glucose meter.
2.) This circuit amplifies the voltage that is generated by the current in order to be
measurable and then filters out any higher frequencies in order to accurately
determine the blood glucose concentration. This conversion is done through a system
already determined by the company and the manufacturers of the instrument.

Analysis:

OPamp Amplification:

V
out
= V
in
(1 + (R
2
/R
1
)) = V
in
(1 + (3900/1000)) = V
in
(4.9)

( V
in
in this case depends on the blood of the individual and the voltage generated from
the current to voltage converter)

Low Pass Filter:

Cutoff Frequency =

()(

)
= 12.5418




Conclusion:

In essence this blood glucose meter needs to have the triamps and the opamps with the
filter in order to effectively calculate the glucose levels and to compare it to the
reference voltage in order. Without the current to voltage converter, it would be quite
difficult for one to calculate the blood glucose level without doing blood tests. This
circuit allows for convenience in our every day lives and because of it, my father is able
to maintain his glucose levels in order to stay healthy as a diabetic. Within the
calculations, I did not really understand how a converter works, as we did not discuss
such things in this course and I really could not understand what kind of output it would
produce in order to solve out the other parts of the circuit. However, I tried my best with
the information I was given and was able to understand how the other parts of the circuit
fit in with the big picture.