Wirelessly Powered Signal Regeneration to Improve the Remote Detectability of an Inductive Pressure Sensor

Chronic pressure monitoring by wireless and batteryless sensors are desirable for maintaining proper function of biomedical implants. Compared to capacitive, piezoelectric, and piezoresistive sensors, inductive sensors are less susceptible to capacitance fluctuation in the environment, and they can convert loading pressure into inductance changes for wireless detection as resonance frequency shifts. However, inductive sensors normally require the use of ferromagnetic materials for frequency tuning; their frequency responses are harder to detect over larger distance separations. Without using ferromagnetic materials, we will utilize two coaxially coupled resonators whose mutual inductance (and thus resonance frequency) is modulated by the thickness of an elastic substrate that can deform under pressure loading. By modifying one of the coupled resonators into a parametric resonator that contains nonlinear capacitors and an extra conductor across its virtual grounds, the sensor can utilize wireless pumping power to enlarge backscattered signals whose peak response frequency is linearly correlated with the loading pressure. This linear relation is observable beyond the near-field region, even though the distance separation between the sensor and the measurement loop is ten-fold the sensor's circuit dimension. This novel concept of wirelessly powered signal regeneration will improve the remote detectability and operation flexibility of various physiological sensors.