Introduction to Biomedical

Sensors
Dr. Muhammad Shafique
Head of Biomedical Engineering Dept.
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Riphah International University, Islamabad

Date: 1-10-2020
 Objectives
• Definition and Classification of Biomedical Sensors

• Biomedical Measurement Technology

• Characteristics of Biomedical Sensors and Measurement

• Development of Biomedical Sensors and Measurement

• Special requirements of biomedical applications

 Definition and Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• The sensors are devices that can transform non-electrical signals into
electrical signals

• A sensor is usually composed of a sensitive component which directly

responds to a measured object, a conversion component and related
electronic circuits

• Sensors often provide information about the physical, chemical or

biological state of a system

• Measurement is defined as an operation that aims to obtain the

measured value of the quantity
 Definition and Classification of Biomedical
Sensors

• They expand the sensing function of the human sensing organ while the key parts
consist of various diagnostic medical analysis instruments and equipment

• Biomedical sensing technology is the key to collecting human physiological and

pathological information and is also an important disciplinary branch
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• Sensor classification schemes range from very simple to the complex.

• Depending on the classification purpose, different classification criteria may be selected

• Biomedical sensors can be classified in the following categories according to their detection
quantities

• Physical sensors: It refers to the sensor made according to physical nature and effect

• This kind of sensors is mostly represented by sensors such as metal resistance strain sensors,
semiconductor piezoresistive sensors, piezoelectric sensors, photoelectric sensors, etc
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• Chemical sensors: It refers to the sensor made according to chemical
nature and effect

• This kind of sensors usually uses ion-selective sensitive film to transform

non-electricity such as a chemical component, content, density, etc. to
related electric quantity, such as various ion sensitive electrodes, ion
sensitive tubes, humidity sensors and, etc
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• Biological sensors or biosensors:

• The device is made up of a transducer and a biological element that may be an enzyme, an
antibody or a nucleic acid.

• The bioelement interacts with the analyte being tested and the biological response is converted
into an electrical signal by the transducer

• Depending on their particular application, biosensors are also known as immunosensors, optrodes,
resonant mirrors, chemical canaries, biochips, glucometers and biocomputers

• It is a newly developed sensor in the second half of the century, and examples include enzyme
sensors, microorganism sensors, immunity sensors, tissue sensors, DNA sensors and, etc
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• All sensors may be of two kinds: passive and active

• A passive sensor does not need any additional energy source and directly
generates an electric signal in response to an external stimulus; that is, the input
stimulus energy is converted by the sensor into the output signal

• The examples are a thermocouple, a photodiode, and a piezoelectric sensor

• Most of passive sensors are direct sensors as we defined them earlier

• The active sensors require external power for their operation, which is called an
excitation signal.
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• That signal is modified by the sensor to produce the output signal.

• The active sensors sometimes are called parametric because their

own properties change in response to an external effect and these
properties can be subsequently converted into electric signals

• It can be stated that a sensor’s parameter modulates the excitation

signal and that modulation carries information of the measured
value.
 Classification of Biomedical Sensors
• For example, a thermistor is a temperature-sensitive resistor that does not
generate any electric signal, but by passing an electric current through it
(excitation signal), its resistance can be measured by detecting variations in
current and/or voltage across the thermistor

• These variations (presented in ohms) directly relate to temperature through a

known function.

• Another example of an active sensor is a resistive strain gauge in which electrical

resistance relates to a strain

• To measure the resistance of a sensor, electric current must be applied to it from

an external power source
Sensor Characteristics
 Introduction
• From the input to the output, a sensor may have several conversion
steps before it produces an electrical signal.

• For instance, pressure inflicted on the fiber-optic sensor first results

in strain in the fiber, which, in turn, causes deflection in its
refractive index, which, in turn, results in an overall change in
optical transmission and modulation of photon density

• Finally, photon flux is detected and converted into electric current

 Transfer Function
• An ideal or theoretical output–stimulus relationship exists for every
sensor.

• If the sensor is ideally designed and fabricated with ideal materials by

ideal workers using ideal tools, the output of such a sensor would always
represent the true value of the stimulus.

• The ideal function may be stated in the form of a table of values, a graph,
or a mathematical equation

• An ideal (theoretical) output–stimulus relationship is characterized by the

so-called transfer function.
 Transfer Function
• This function establishes dependence between
the electrical signal S produced by the sensor and
the stimulus s : S =f (s)

• That function may be a simple linear connection

or logarithmic, exponential, or power nonlinear
dependence function
 Transfer Function
• In many cases, the relationship is unidimensional
(i.e., the output versus one input stimulus)

• A unidimensional linear relationship is

represented by the equation:
S =a +bs
 Transfer Function
S =a +bs
• where a is the intercept (i.e., the output signal at zero input signal)
and b is the slope, which is sometimes called sensitivity

• S is one of the characteristics of the output electric signal used by

the data acquisition devices as the sensor’s output

• It may be amplitude, frequency, or phase, depending on the sensor

properties
 Transfer Function
• A sensor may have such a transfer function that none of the below
approximations fits sufficiently well:

• Logarithmic function:
S =a +b ln s
• Exponential function:
S =aeks
• Power function:
S =a0 +a1sk
where k is a constant number
 Transfer Function
• A sensor may have such a transfer function
that none of the above approximations fits
sufficiently well

• In that case, a higher-order polynomial

approximation is often employed
 Span (Full-Scale Input)
• A dynamic range of stimuli which may be converted by a sensor is
called a span or an input full scale (FS)

• It represents the highest possible input value that can be applied to

the sensor without causing an unacceptably large inaccuracy

• For the sensors with a very broad and nonlinear response

characteristic, a dynamic range of the input stimuli is often
expressed in decibels, which is a logarithmic measure of ratios of
either power or force (voltage)
 Span (Full-Scale Input)
• It should be emphasized that decibels do not measure absolute values,
but a ratio of values only

• A decibel scale represents signal magnitudes by much smaller numbers,

which, in many cases, is far more convenient

• Being a nonlinear scale, it may represent low-level signals with high

resolution while compressing the high-level numbers

• In other words, the logarithmic scale for small objects works as a

microscope, and for the large objects, it works as a telescope
 Span (Full-Scale Input)
• By definition, decibels are equal to 10 times the log of the
ratio of powers (Table 2.1):

• In a similar manner, decibels are equal to 20 times the log of

the force, current, or voltage:
 Full-Scale Output
• Full-scale output (FSO) is the algebraic difference
between the electrical output signals measured
with maximum input stimulus and the lowest
input stimulus applied.

• This must include all deviations from the ideal

transfer function
 Accuracy
• A very important characteristic of a sensor is accuracy which really
means inaccuracy.

• Inaccuracy is measured as a highest deviation of a value

represented by the sensor from the ideal or true value at its input

• The true value is attributed to the object of measurement and

accepted as having a specified uncertainty

• Difference between accuracy and precision?

 Accuracy
• The deviation can be described as a difference between the value
which is computed from the output voltage and the actual input
value

• For example, a linear displacement sensor ideally should generate 1

mV per 1-mm displacement; that is, its transfer function is linear
with a slope (sensitivity) b=1 mV/mm

• However, in the experiment, a displacement of s =10 mm produced

an output of S =10.5 mV
 Accuracy
• Converting this number into the displacement value by using the inversed transfer
function (1/b=1 mm/mV), we would calculate that the displacement was sx =10.5
mm; that is sx −s =0.5 mm more than the actual

• This extra 0.5 mm is an erroneous deviation in the measurement, or error.

• Therefore, in a 10-mm range, the sensor’s absolute inaccuracy is 0.5 mm, or in the
relative terms, inaccuracy is (0.5mm/10mm)×100%=5%.

• If we repeat this experiment over and over again without any random error and
every time we observe an error of 0.5 mm, we may say that the sensor has a
systematic inaccuracy of 0.5 mm over a 10-mm span
 Accuracy
• Naturally, a random component is always present, so
the systematic error may be represented as an average
or mean value of multiple errors

• In modern sensors, specification of accuracy often is

replaced by a more comprehensive value of
uncertainty because uncertainty is comprised of all
distorting effects both systematic and random and is
not limited to the inaccuracy of a transfer function
 Calibration
• If the sensor’s manufacturer’s tolerances and tolerances of
the interface (signal conditioning) circuit are broader than
the required system accuracy, a calibration is required

• For example: we need to measure temperature with an

accuracy ±0.5 oC; however, an available sensor is rated as
having an accuracy of ±1oC

• Does it mean that the sensor can not be used?

 Calibration
• No, it can be, but that particular sensor needs to be
calibrated; that is, its individual transfer function needs
to be found during calibration

• Calibration means the determination of specific

variables that describe the overall transfer function

• Overall means of the entire circuit, including the

sensor, the interface circuit, and the A/D converter
 Calibration
• The mathematical model of the transfer function should be known before
calibration

• If the model is linear [Eq. S =a +bs], then the calibration should determine
variables a and b; if it is exponential [Eq. S =aeks], variables a and k should
be determined; and so on

• Let us consider a simple linear transfer function

• Because a minimum of two points are required to define a straight line, at

least a two-point calibration is required.
 Calibration
• For example, if one uses a forward-biased
semiconductor p-n junction for temperature
measurement, with a high degree of accuracy
its transfer function (temperature is the input
and voltage is the output) can be considered
linear:
v =a +bt (2.10)
 Calibration
• To determine constants a and b, such a sensor should be subjected
to two temperatures (t1 and t2) and two corresponding output
voltages (v1 and v2) will be registered

• Then, after substituting these values into Eq. (2.10), we arrive at

v1 =a +bt1, (2.11)
v2 =a +bt2,
And the constants are computed as
b= (v1 −v2)/(t1 −t2) and a =v1 −bt1 (2.12)
 Calibration
• To compute the temperature from the output
voltage, a measured voltage is inserted into an
inversed equation
t = (v −a)/b (2.13)
 Calibration
• In some fortunate cases, one of the constants may be specified
with a sufficient accuracy so that no calibration of that particular
constant may be needed

• In the same p-n-junction temperature sensor, the slope b is usually

a very consistent value for a given lot and type of semiconductor

• For example, a value of b=−0.002268 V/◦C was determined to be

consistent for a selected type of the diode, then a single-point
calibration is needed to find out a as a =v1 +0.002268t1
 Calibration
• For nonlinear functions, more than two points may be required,
depending on a mathematical model of the transfer function

• Any transfer function may be modeled by a polynomial, and

depending on required accuracy, the number of the calibration
points should be selected

• Because calibration may be a slow process, to reduce production

cost in manufacturing, it is very important to minimize the number
of calibration points.
 Calibration Error
• The calibration error is inaccuracy permitted by a manufacturer when a
sensor is calibrated in the factory

• This error is of a systematic nature, meaning that it is added to all possible

real transfer functions. It shifts the accuracy of transduction for each
stimulus point by a constant

• This error is not necessarily uniform over the range and may change
depending on the type of error in the calibration

• For example, let us consider a two-point calibration of a real linear transfer

function
 Calibration Error
• To determine the slope and the intercept of the function,
two stimuli, s1 and s2, are applied to the sensor. The sensor
responds with two corresponding output signals A1 and A2.

• The first response was measured absolutely accurately,

however the higher signal was measured with error −.

• This results in errors in the slope and intercept calculation

 Calibration Error
• A new intercept, a1, will differ from the real
intercept, a, by:

δa =a1 −a = /(s2 −s1) (2.14)

• and the slope will be calculated with error:

Δb = −  /(s2 −s1)
 Hysteresis

• A hysteresis error is a
deviation of the sensor’s
output at a specified point
of the input signal when it
is approached from the
opposite directions (Fig.
2.4).
 Hysteresis
• For example, a displacement sensor when the object moves from
left to right at a certain point produces a voltage which differs by 20
mV from that when the object moves from right to left

• If the sensitivity of the sensor is 10 mV/mm, the hysteresis error in

terms of displacement units is ???

• Typical causes for hysteresis are friction and structural changes in

the materials