High demand for minimally invasive medical procedures is expected to boost the demand for catheters, including cardiovascular, urology, intravenous, neurovascular and specialty catheters. Many such procedures require small pressure and tactile-type sensors. Despite the small size, the sensors should provide required sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio and high stability.
This session provides an overview of basic design, fabrication process and performance of a family of ultra-small assembly-friendly MEMS piezoresistive sensors suitable for wide variety of applications, including high-performance pressure sensors for Fractional Flow Reserve (FFR) and robust force sensors for detecting contact with tissue in ablation catheters. We will look at examples from major manufacturers including Boston Scientific and Tanaka during the discussion.