Blood Pressure Meter Designs

Microchip Technology has created a blood pressure meter, or sphygmomanometer, for measuring and monitoring blood pressure at home. The meter is used with an inflatable cuff for restricting blood flow and a pump to inflate the cuff. Digital blood pressure meters typically measure both systolic and diastolic pressures by an oscillometric detection method using a piezoelectric pressure sensor. Energizer® Application Support (from the makers of Energizer batteries) did extensive testing of Microchip's low-power blood pressure meter demonstration. From that testing, they were able to estimate that the long-term battery life of the Microchip blood pressure meter demonstration was 700 uses when used with four standard alkaline AAA batteries. In contrast, they also ran the same tests on five popular name-brand blood pressure meters that do not use Microchip parts. For these meters, the battery life ranged from over 500 uses down to 75 uses with four standard alkaline AAA batteries. With 700 uses, the Microchip solution demonstrated a significant increase in battery life. Additionally, Energizer found that by using their Ultimate Lithium AAA batteries in the demonstration, the number of uses increased to almost 1,200.

A digital blood pressure meter allows easy monitoring of blood pressure at home, in a doctor’s office, or in a hospital. Today’s blood pressure meters must meet the demands of measuring, storing, and transmitting blood pressure, pulse, and other medical data. To meet these demands, Microchip offers a broad portfolio of MCUs, analog, discrete, wireless, IoT connectivity, software, and development tools to build a product as well as demonstration design files to speed up user designs’ time to market.

Resources

• BOM: Blood Pressure Meter Designs