Radio Pill

Radio pill:
Radio pill when swallowed, will travel the GI tract (Gastrointestinal tract) and simultaneously perform multiparameter in physiological analysis. After completing its mission it will come out of the human body by normal bowel movement. The pill is 10mm in diameter and 30mm long weighing around 5gm and records parameters like temperature, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen in real time. The pill comprises an outer biocompatible capsule encasing micro sensors, a control chip, radio transmitter and two silver-oxide cells. INSIDE THE CAPSULE: The schematic diagram of the microelectronic pill is as shown in figure below. The outer casing of the pill is made by machining chemically resistant polyetheterketone, which is biocompatible. It is made up of two halves, which are joined together by screwing. The pill houses a PCB chip carrier that acts as a common platform for attachment of, 1. sensors, 2. application- specific integrated circuit (ASIC), 3. radio transmitter and 4. batteries.
Task of the sensors: The device is provided with four micro sensors, namely 1. a silicon diode, 2. an ion-selective field effect transistor (ISFET), 3. a pair of direct- -contact gold electrodes and 4. a 3-electrode electrochemical cell. Silicon diode: The silicon diode is used to measure the body core temperature and also identify local changes associated with tissue inflammation and ulcers. ISFET: 1. It is used to measure pH. 2. It is used to determine the presence of pathological conditions
associated with abnormal pH levels, particularly associated with pancreatic disease, hypertension, inflammatory bowel disease, the activity of fermenting bacteria, the level of acid excretion, reflux to the oesophagus and the effect of GI-specific drugs on target organs. Gold electrodes: A pair of direct contact gold electrode is used to measure conductivity. The conductivity sensor is used to monitor the contents of the GI tract by measuring water and salt absorption, bile secretion and the breakdown of organic components into charged colloids. 3- electrode electrochemical cell: The 3-electrode electrochemical cell is used to detect the level of dissolved oxygen in solution. The oxygen sensor measures the oxygen gradient from the proximal to the distal GI tract. This enables a variety of syndromes to be investigated including the growth of aerobic bacteria or bacterial infection. The implementation of a generic oxygen sensor will also enable the development of a first generation enzyme linked amperometric biosensors, thus extending the range of future applications to include (eg.) glucose and lactate sensing, as well as immunosensing protocols. The microelectronic sensors are attached to the PCB chip carrier by a 10 pin, 0.5mm pitch polyimide ribbon connector. The PCB carrier is made from 1.6mm thick fiberglass board. The transmitter and the ASIC are also integrated on the board. The integrated radio transmitter sends the signal to a local receiver prior to data acquition on a computer. The unit is powered by two standard 1.55V silver-oxide cells with a capacity of 175mAh.The batteries are connected in series and provide an operating time of 40 hours at the rated power consumption of 12.1mW. The sensor chips are provided at the front end of the pill and are exposed to the ambient environment through access ports. They are scaled by two sets of stainless-steel clamps incorporating an o.8m thick sheet of fluoroelastomer seal. The 3mm diameter access channel in the center of each steel clamp exposes the sensing region of the chips to the ambient environment. SENSORS: The schematic diagram of sensor chips is as shown below. The sensors are fabricated on two silicon chips located at the front end of the capsule. Chip1, measuring 4.75 x 5mm2, comprises the silicon diode temperature sensor, the pH ISFET sensor and the two-electrode 5x 10-4mm2 conductivity sensor. Predefined n-channels in the p-type bulk silicon formthe basis for the diode and the ISFET. The 15x600m floating gate of the ISFET is precovered with a 50nm thick protonsensitive layer of Si3N4 for pHdetection. The pH sensor consists of the integrated 3x 102mm2 Ag/Agcl reference electrode, a 500m diameter and 10-nL electrolyte chamber and 15x600m floating gate of the ISFET sensor.
Chip2, measuring 5 x 5mm2, comprises the electrochemical oxygen sensor and a NiCr resistance thermometer. The oxygen sensor is embedded in the electrolyte chamber. The 3-electrode electrochemical cell of the oxygen sensor comprises the 1x10-1 mm2 counter electrode made of gold, a microelectrode array of 57x10m diameter working gold electrodes and an integrated 1.5x 10-2mm2 Ag/Agcl reference electrode.
The microelectrode array has an inter-electrode spacing of 25m and a combined area of 4.5x 10-3mm2. It promotes electrode polarization and reduces response time by enhancing transport to the electrode surface. The NiCr resistance thermometer is made from a 100nm thick layer of NiCr and is 5m wide and 11mm long. The 500nm thick layer of thermally evaporated silver is used to fabricate the reference electrode. It is then oxidized to Ag/Agcl by chronopotentiometry. Control chip: The ASIC is the control unit that connects together other components of the microsystem as shown in the figure below. It contains an analogue signal conditioning module operating the sensors, 10-bit ADC and DAC converters and a digital data processing
module. An oscillator provides the clock signal.
The temperature circuitry biases the diode at constant current so a change in temperature reflects a corresponding change in diode voltage. The pH ISFET sensor is biased as a simple source and drain follower at constant current with the drain-source voltage changing with the threshold voltage and pH. The conductivity circuit operates at direct current, measuring the resistance across the electrode pair as an inverse function of solution conductivity. An incorporated potentiostat circuit operates the amperometric oxygen sensor with a 10-bit DAC controlling the working electrode potential with respect to the reference. The analogue signals have a full-scale dynamic range of 2.8V with the resolution determined by the ADC. These are sequenced through a multiplexer prior of being digitized by the ADC. The bandwidth for each channel is limited by the sampling interval of 0.2msec. The digital data processing module processes the digitized signals through the use of a serial bit stream data compression algorithm, which decides when transmission is required by comparing the most recent sample with the previous sampled data. The digital module is clocked at 32KHz and employs a sleep mode to conserve power from the analogue module. Radio transmitter: The size of the transmitter is 8x5x3mm. The transmission range is one meter and the modulation scheme frequency shift keying has a data rate of 1 kbps. The transmitter is designed to operate at a transmission frequency of 40.01 MHz at 20C generating a signal of 10KHz bandwidth. Power consumption:
Two SR44 Ag2O batteries are used, which provide an operating time of more than 40 hours of the microsystem. The power consumption of the system is around 12.1mW and current consumption is around 3.9mA at 3.1V supply. The ASIC and sensor consume 5.3mW corresponding to 1.7mA of current and the free running radio transmitter consumes 6.8mW at 2.2mA of current. Range of measurement: The microsystem can measure, 1. Temperature from 0 to 70C, 2. pH from 1 to 13, 3. Dissolved oxygen up to 8.2mg/litre, 4. Conductivity from 0.05 to 10 ms.cm-1( s=siemens).

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Radio pill:

module. An oscillator provides the clock signal.

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