Abstract
Electrostatic capacitance measurement method in a fine hose was proposed, in which two ring-type electrodes were disposed on the hose in the direction of fluid flow instead of the conventional face-to-face electrodes. With the proposed electrode structure, we realized a Ringer's solution exhaustion detector for an IV(invasive vein) injection set. On a 4 mm-diameter hose of IV set, we disposed two ring-type electrodes of 10 mm width at a distance of 5 mm each other and obtained 0.72 pF and 2.51 pF for air and 10 % dextrose Ringer's solution in the hose, respectively. The capacitance between the two electrodes varied with the hose-wraparound coverage of electrode as well as the width of electrode and the distance between the electrodes. For hose-wraparound electrode coverage of 75 %, the capacitance varied from 0.62 pF to 1.98 pF with the Ringer's solution level between the two electrodes. A charge amplifier converted the capacitance. variation into electric signal and a comparator was used to detect whether Ringer's solution was exhausted or not. The result was delivered to a host using a RF transmitter with 320 MHz carrier frequency.