Ion Polymer Metal Compound Actuator for Active Phlegm Remover in Ventilator Circuit

摘要

A sensor-actuator coupled device was developed using ion polymer metal compound (IPMC) as an active tracheal tube for ventilator. Active tracheal tube is a novel type of tube for ventilator that removes patient's phlegm automatically upon sensing the narrowing of trachea by phlegm. This type of active tube is extremely useful in clinical settings as currently the sole measure to remove phlegm from patient's tube is to do it manually by a nurse every few hours. As IPMC works both as a sensor and an actuator, an effective compact device was developed. IPMC based sensor-actuator coupled device was fabricated with modified gold plating method. Prepared IPMC was fixed as an array on a plastic pipe of diameter 22 mm and was connected to a ventilator circuit and driven by a ventilator with a volume control ventilation (VCV) mode. IPMC was connected both to a sensing unit and an actuation unit. It was demonstrated that the sensor-actuator unit detects the narrowing of trachea within several hundreds milli-seconds and responds by actuating the same membrane with the driving voltage of 3-4 V and driving current of several hundred milli-ampere for each membrane.