Tongue Pressure Sensing Array Integrated with a System-on-Chip Embedded in a Mandibular Advancement Splint

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is caused by obstructions of the upper airway, is a syndrome with rising prevalence. Mandibular advancement splints (MAS) are oral appliances for potential treatment of OSA. This work proposes a highly-sensitive pressure sensing array integrated with a system-on-chip (SoC) embedded in a MAS. The device aims to measure tongue pressure distribution in order to determine the efficacy of the MAS for treating OSA. The flexible sensing array consists of an interdigital electrode pair array assembled with conductive polymer films and an SoC capable of retrieving/storing data during sleep, and transmitting data for analysis after sleep monitoring. The surfaces of the conductive polymer films were patterned with microdomed structures, which effectively increased the sensitivity and reduced the pressure sensing response time. The measured results also show that the crosstalk effect between the sensing elements of the array was negligible. The sensitivity of the sensing array changed minimally after the device was submerged in water for up to 100 h.

Resolution enhancement of tongue tactile image based on deconvolution neural network

“…The tactile perception of the tongue surface is composed of mechanical stimuli received by tens of thousands of tactile corpuscles (Kohyama, 2020; Miles et al, 2018). To explore the actual state of the tactile perception, and further reveal the generation mechanism of the tactile perception of the tongue surface, many researchers try to reproduce the multipoint tactile perception state of the tongue surface using tactile images (Chen et al, 2018; Jiang et al, 2020; Li et al, 2018; Liu et al, 2022; Park et al, 2020, 2021). In this process, they face an arduous task: Using the sensor array with limited acquisition points to obtain the multiple contacts information on the tongue surface (Hori et al, 2009; Liu et al, 2017; Yeh et al, 2017).…”

Editorial for the Special Issue on Implantable Microdevices

“…There are eight research articles and one review article published in this special issue, covering a wide range of topics: implantable sensors for detecting biophysiological and biophysical signals [1,2]; novel transducers for stimulation [3]; miniaturized antennas and biotelemetries for wireless implants [4,5,6] medical electronics and system-on-chip (SoC) [1,7]; and nano/microfabrication technologies for implantable microdevices [2,8,9]. On the device side, Chen et al reported a tongue pressure sensing platform that integrated interdigitated pressure sensing electrodes with SoC on flexible polymer films.…”