Some conventional medical devices that are worn on body have a wireless communication capability. For example, certain glucose monitors have a Bluetooth® communication capability. In order to provide such a wireless communication capability, these on-body medical devices include an antenna. A typical approach for such conventional on-body medical devices has been to provide an antenna on a printed circuit board inside the housing of the on-body medical device. For example, a strip antenna may be formed on the printed circuit board, or an antenna may be surface mounted on the printed circuit board.
There are a few drawbacks to these conventional approaches of providing the antenna on the printed circuit board. First, the antenna may occupy a large area on the printed circuit board. Given that a printed circuit board for such a medical device typically is small and that space on the printed circuit board is a valuable resource, using the area on the printed circuit board for the antenna wastes the valuable resource. In some instances, the size of the printed circuit board may need to be increased to accommodate the antenna. Second, such strip antennas and surface mounted component antennas on a printed circuit board are known to be of low efficiency when the printed circuit board is attached in very close proximity to the body of a user. This low efficiency may result in intermittent loss of communication capability and an unsatisfying user experience. Third, since the antennas are either formed directly on the printed circuit board or surface mounted on the printed circuit board, the other components on the printed circuit board must be arranged so that they do not block or obstruct transmission/reception of communications with the antenna.
In accordance with an inventive aspect, a drug delivery device includes one or more button cell batteries for powering at least a portion of the drug delivery device. Each button cell battery of the one or more button cell batteries is cylindrical and has a longitudinal axis. The drug delivery device also includes a wireless communication transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless communications. In addition, the drug delivery device includes an electrical connection between the wireless communication transceiver and the one or more button cell batteries so that the one or more button cell batteries act as an antenna that transmits wireless communications from the wireless communication transceiver and receives wireless communications destined for the wireless communication transceiver. The drug delivery device also includes a housing that is configured to be secured to a body of a user so that the longitudinal axis of the at least one button cell battery is substantially perpendicular to a surface of the body of the user where the housing is secured.
In some embodiments, there may be a single button cell battery and in other embodiments there may be multiple button cell batteries. The drug delivery device may be configured to emit surface waves from the one or more button cell batteries for travelling along the surface of the body of the user. The drug delivery device may include a printed circuit board on which the one or more button cell batteries are positioned and where a ground plane is formed. The wireless communication transceiver may be, for example, a Bluetooth transceiver, a Bluetooth Low Energy transceiver, a Body Area Network (BAN) transceiver, or a WiFi transceiver. The drug delivery device may further include at least one battery holder for holding the one or more button cell batteries. The electrical connection between the wireless communication transceiver, and the one or more button cell batteries may be connected to the at least one battery holder, which is in electrical contact with the one or more button cell batteries.
In accordance with an inventive aspect, a drug pump includes one or more button cell batteries for powering at least a portion of the drug pump. The drug pump may be used to pump insulin, or glucagon, or another type of drug into the body of a user. Each of the one or more button cell batteries is cylindrical and has a longitudinal axis. The insulin pump also includes a wireless communication transceiver for transmitting and receiving wireless communications. The insulin pump additionally includes an electrical connection between the wireless communication transceiver, and the one or more button cell batteries so that the one or more button cell batteries act as an antenna that transmit(s) wireless communications from the wireless communication transceiver and receive(s) wireless communications destined for the wireless communication transceiver. The drug pump further includes a housing that is configured to be secured to a body of a user so that the longitudinal axes of the one or more button cell batteries are substantially perpendicular to a surface of the body of the user to which the housing is secured.
In some embodiments there is a single button cell battery and in other embodiments there are multiple button cell batteries. The drug pump may be configured to emit surface waves from the one or more button cell batteries for travelling along the surface of the body of the user. The drug pump may include a printed circuit board on which the one or more button cell batteries are positioned and where a ground plane is formed. The transceiver may be a Bluetooth transceiver, a Bluetooth Low Energy transceiver, a Body Area Network (BAN) transceiver, or a WiFi transceiver. The insulin pump may include at least one battery holder for holding the one or more button cell batteries. The electrical connection between the wireless communication transceiver and the one or more button cell batteries may be connected to the at least one battery holder, which are in electrical contact with the one or more button cell batteries.
In accordance with another inventive aspect, a method is practiced where at least one button cell battery is positioned on a printed circuit board in a drug delivery device. The at least one button cell battery is electrically connected to the printed circuit board to provide power for the drug delivery device. A wireless communication transceiver is electrically and mechanically connected to the printed circuit board. An electrical feed is connected between the at least one button cell battery and the wireless communication transceiver to create an antenna for transmitting wireless communications from the wireless communication transceiver and receiving wireless communications for the wireless communication transceiver.
The method may further include electrically and mechanically connecting to the printed circuit board at least one battery holder for the at least one button cell battery. The at least one button cell battery may be held by the at least one battery holder so as to be electrically connected with the at least one battery holder, and the electrical feed may be connected to the at least one battery holder so as to be electrically connected with the at least one button cell battery. The wireless communication transceiver may be a Bluetooth® transceiver, a Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) transceiver, a Body Area Network (BAN) transceiver, or a WiFi transceiver.
Exemplary embodiments may use one or more batteries in an on-body medical device to act as an antenna for wireless communication. Since the one or more batteries are already present on a printed circuit board of the on-body medical device to provide power, no additional space on the printed circuit board is required for the antenna. Use of the batteries to form the antenna may also enable the printed circuit board for the on-body medical device to be smaller and thus enable the on-body medical device to be smaller. In some exemplary embodiments, a single button cell battery is used as the antenna, and in other embodiments, multiple button cell batteries are used as the antenna. For example, a single button cell battery may be used as part of a monopole antenna. Multiple button cell batteries may be used as part of a dipole antenna. In the case of a single button cell battery used as part of a monopole antenna, a single button cell battery or multiple button cell batteries may be used to power the on-body medical device, with one being used concurrently as a monopole antenna. In alternative embodiments, the batteries need but be button cell batteries but may be other varieties of batteries may be used. More generally, batteries that are flat with thin structures like a disk or coin may be suitable.
In addition, the antennas of the exemplary embodiments may be configured to not suffer from the inefficiencies of conventional surface mounted antennas that are mounted on printed circuit boards or trace antennas formed on printed circuit boards. Some of the inefficiencies may result from the conventional trace antennas or surface mounted antennas being oriented parallel to the body of the user and as a result, a great deal of the transmitted energy from such conventional antennas may be absorbed by the body of the user. The human body is a lossy medium for electromagnetic waves, and the resulting loss due to absorption by the human body may greatly influence antenna performance. The antennas of the exemplary embodiments may be configured to be oriented substantially perpendicular to the body surface of the user so that less energy of the transmitted signals is absorbed by the human body. Antennas placed perpendicular to the human body suffer less absorption by the human body. Some of the inefficiencies of conventional surface mounted antennas and trace antennas formed on the printed circuit board also have to do with the minimal separation of the antennas from the surface of the body of the user. This may be addressed by placing greater separation between the button cell batteries of the antennas of the exemplary embodiments and the body surface of the user by, for example, design of the housing of the on-body medical device.
The exemplary embodiments may provide antennas that are well suited for wireless communications between multiple on-body devices as well as between an on-body device or devices and an off-body device or devices. The antennas of the exemplary embodiments may transmit surface waves that travel along an outer body surface of the user that are well suited for quality communications with other on-body devices. In addition, the antennas of the exemplary embodiments may transmit electromagnetic waves with sufficient energy in an off-body direction to facilitate quality communications with off-body devices.
The PCB 110 may include a battery set 116 containing one or more batteries. The one or more batteries 116 may include button cell batteries. The batteries in the battery set 116 may be silver oxide batteries, alkaline batteries, zinc air batteries, lithium batteries of the like. The batteries in the battery set 116 may be cylindrical in shape as is typical off button cell batteries. The batteries in the battery set 116 may be of any of a number of diameters, such as found in commercially available button cell batteries. The batteries of the battery set 116 may be held by one or more battery holder(s) 122. The battery holder(s) 122 may be in electrical contact with the anodes and cathodes of the batteries of the battery set 116. Moreover, the battery holder(s) may be mechanically connected to the PCB 110 and may be electrically connected to the PCB 110.
In the exemplary embodiments, the battery set 116 provides power for components of the drug delivery device 100. In addition, the battery set 116 is used as a wireless antenna for transmitting and receiving wireless communications from other devices positioned on-body and off-body as will described in more detail below. A wireless communication transceiver 118 is provided to both transmit and receive wireless communications. The wireless communication transceiver 118 may transmit and receive communications in wireless formats, such as Bluetooth® Bluetooth®, Low Energy (BLE), WiFi or IEEE 802.15.6 Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN). An electrical feed 124 electrically connects the wireless communication transceiver 118 with the battery set 116, where the battery set 116 acts as a wireless antenna that transmits wireless communications from the wireless communication transceiver 118 and receives wireless communications that are forwarded to the wireless communication transceiver 118. The electrical feed 124 may be electrically connected to the battery holder(s) 122 in some embodiments and electrically connected to the battery set 116 in other embodiments. Electrical circuitry 120, such as a capacitor, may be provided to tune the impedance, provide filtering and the like. The electrical circuitry 120 may also include other electrical components.
The ground plane for the antenna may be formed in the PCB 200 as shown in
The antenna seeks to provide sufficient energy in transmissions along the Z axis so as to facilitate off-body communication and also seeks to provide sufficient energy in transmissions along the Y axis to facilitate transmissions along the skin surface of the user for on-body communications. The transmissions along the Y axis are configured to be surface waves. Surface waves tend to be entrained along a surface where there is a boundary condition formed between two mediums having different dielectric constants (i.e., different degrees of electrical permeability). The permeability of the air is much higher than the permeability of the human body. As a result, electrical signals travel faster in the air than in the human body. The net effect is the bottom portion of a propagating waveform tends to bend toward the skin surface of the user at the boundary between the air and the skin surface. The bending causes the waveform to be entrained along the surface of the skin of the user. This is desirable because the surface waves reach on-body devices better than wireless signals cast through the air or through the body of the user.
As was discussed above, conventional trace antennas formed on the PCB lack sufficient separation relative to the skin surface of the user. Moreover, the conventional trace antennas tend to direct a large amount of transmitted energy into the body of the user. The antennas described herein, by contrast, have greater separation relative to the skin surface of the user (e.g., from 2 mm up to 60 mm) because the battery set is positioned further form the PCB top surface. In addition, the directivity of the antenna has less energy transmitted toward the skin surface of the user because the antenna is oriented perpendicular to the skin surface of the user (see
The single button cell arrangement of
In an exemplary embodiment, the drug delivery device is an insulin pump.
The insulin pump 702 may include a controller 710. The controller 710 may be implemented in hardware, such as processor 112 of
The insulin pump 702 may include an insulin reservoir 712 (see drug reservoir 106 in
There may be one or more communications links with one or more devices physically separated from the insulin pump 702 including, for example, a PDM 704 of the user and/or a caregiver of the user and/or a glucose monitor 706. The communication links may include any wired or wireless communication link operating according to any known communications protocol or standard, such as Bluetooth®, Wi-Fi, a near-field communication standard, a cellular standard, or any other wireless protocol. The insulin pump 702 may also include a user interface 717, such as an integrated display device for displaying information to the user 708 and in some embodiments, receiving information from the user 708. The user interface 717 may include a touchscreen and/or one or more input devices, such as buttons, knob or a keyboard.
The insulin pump 702 includes the battery set/antenna arrangement 730 discussed above relative to
The insulin pump 702 may interface with a network 722. The network 722 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) or a combination therein. A computing device 726 may be interfaced with the network, and the computing device may communicate with the insulin pump 702.
The drug delivery system 700 may include a glucose monitor 706 for sensing the blood glucose concentration levels of the user 708. The glucose monitor 706 may provide periodic blood glucose concentration measurements and may be a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), or another type of device or sensor that provides blood glucose or other analyte measurements. The glucose monitor 706 may be physically separate from the insulin pump 702 or may be an integrated component thereof. The glucose monitor 706 may provide the controller 710 with data indicative of measured or detected blood glucose levels of the user 708. The glucose monitor 706 may be coupled to the user 708 by, for example, adhesive or the like and may provide information or data on one or more medical conditions and/or physical attributes of the user 708. The information or data provided by the glucose monitor 706 may be used to adjust drug delivery operations of the insulin pump 702.
The drug delivery system 700 may also include the PDM 704. The PDM 704 may be a special purpose device, such as a dedicated personal diabetes manager (PDM) device. The PDM 704 may be a programmed general-purpose device, such as any portable electronic device including, for example, a dedicated controller, such as a processor, a smartphone, or a tablet. The PDM 704 may be used to program or adjust operation of the drug pump 702 and/or the glucose monitor 706. The PDM 704 may be any portable electronic device including, for example, a dedicated controller, a smartphone, or a tablet. In the depicted example, the PDM 704 may include a processor 719 and a storage 718. The processor 719 may execute processes to manage a user's blood glucose levels and for control the delivery of the drug or therapeutic agent to the user 708. The processor 719 may also be operable to execute programming code stored in the storage 718. For example, the storage may be operable to store one or more control applications 720 for execution by the processor 719. The storage 718 may store the control application 720, histories 721 like those described above for the insulin pump 702 and other data and/or programs.
The PDM 704 may include a user interface 723 for communicating with the user 708. The user interface may include a display, such as a touchscreen, for displaying information. The touchscreen may also be used to receive input. The user interface 723 may also include input elements, such as a keyboard, button, knobs or the like.
The PDM 704 may interface with a network 724, such as a LAN or WAN or combination of such networks. The PDM 704 may communicate over network 724 with one or more servers or cloud services 728. The role that the one or more servers or cloud services 728 may play in the exemplary embodiments will be described below.
As was mentioned relative to
The use of the battery antenna in the system of
While the application discloses exemplary embodiments herein, it should be appreciated that various changes in form and detail may be made without departing from the intended scope as defined by the claim appended hereto.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/127,323, filed Dec. 18, 2020, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63127323 | Dec 2020 | US |