EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering

Module 7 – Pressure Sensor

Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

IMPORTANT - READ CAREFULLY: Lab questions are now broken into PRE-LAB, LAB, and POST-
LAB components. Please go to the EE1305 website and read the lab procedure, and complete
all of the PRE-LAB sections, BEFORE coming to the lab.
Pre-Lab - Question 1:
 What is systolic pressure? Give an example of the value for systolic pressure in unit of mmHg.

 What is diastolic pressure? Give an example of the value for diastolic pressure in unit of mmHg.

Pre-Lab - Question 2:
 Think about design of a circuit capable of finding your blood pressure using the circuit blocks in
Figure 4 of procedure 2. Draw a schematic of possible circuit you like to build.

Hint: There are an infinite number of possible good solutions. If you look at the last few labs you will see
examples of low-pass, high-pass, and amplification circuits.
The high-pass filter and low pass filter should have a cutoff such that your pulse gets through, i.e. a 1 Hz
signal.

NOTE: For this week’s lab, you are individually work for all procedures and everything should be
completed by yourself. You are provided with necessary instructions.
 EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Module 7 – Pressure Sensor
Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

Lab – Procedure 1: Follow the procedure 1 on the website.

 Include the model that relates voltage from blood pressure sensor to pressure. Define each
parameter in the model.

You can find this formula in procedure 1, please read this procedure to define each parameter and
explain what is Vout? Vs? and P?

Vout = Vs(0.018P + 0.04)

 Solve for Pressure (P) in the equation, and include unit conversions in order to end up with units
of mmHg.
Solution: I isolated pressure (P) and wrote expression for pressure (P) as function of Vout. You know that
Vs= 5V and pressure (P) is in the unit of kPa. In last equation, replace question marks with the
appropriate value to convert the unit of pressure (P) from kPa to mmHg. First convert kPa to Pa, and
convert Pa to mmHg (1.013 x 105 Pa = 760 mmHg).

𝑉
𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 ( 𝑜𝑢𝑡 −0.04)
𝑉𝑠
= 0.018 𝑃 + 0.04 → − 0.04 = 0.018 𝑃 → =𝑃 →
𝑉𝑠 𝑉𝑠 0.018

𝑉
( 𝑜𝑢𝑡 −0.04) 𝑘𝑃𝑎 ??? 𝑃𝑎 ??? 𝑚𝑚𝐻𝑔
𝑉𝑠
𝑃= 0.018 1
. 𝑘𝑃𝑎 . ??? 𝑃𝑎

Lab – Procedure 2: Please follow procedure 2 to analyze and build blood pressure circuit.
 Design your circuit and draw schematic. Include all calculation you performed to determine the
value of each component in your circuit.
The systolic pressure is a result of the maximum pressure exerted by the heart on the arteries during
contraction of the heart muscle, and the diastolic pressure is the pressure exerted by the heart in between
beats on the arteries. In order to extract the systolic/diastolic pressure, we need to measure and analyze
the pulsation caused by heart muscle using the pressure sensor. The heart signal has frequency around 1
Hz. We need to use low pass filter and high pass filter to filtered out noises and detect the desired heart
signal with frequency of 1 Hz. We need to use Op-Amps that act as a buffer between elements such that
each functional block can be built and tested in isolation. At last stage, we need to use an amplifier to get
a reasonable level for the output signal.
 EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Module 7 – Pressure Sensor
Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

The low pass filter should be design with fc a little bit higher than 1Hz (suggestion is fc= 15.9 Hz) in order
to allow 1 Hz heart signal to perfectly pass through the filter and also remove high frequency noises. And
high pass filter should be design with fc a little bit lower than 1Hz (suggestion is fc= 0.32 Hz) in order to
allow 1Hz heart signal to perfectly pass through the filter and remove low frequency noises. For the last
stage, we suggest you to design an inverting amplifier with gain of -33 which is big enough to see a
reasonable level for the output signal..

Use above information to calculate the value of C1, R2, C3, R5 here:

 Use your hand to draw the bode plots of high pass filter and low pass filter included in the circuit
you designed. The graph should include x label, y label and please mark where the fc is placed.
You can draw the bode plot on a sheet and then use your cell phone to take a picture of that and
include here.
 EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Module 7 – Pressure Sensor
Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

 Build your circuit. Put your UTEP ID across your breadboard and take a picture of your UTEP ID
and final circuit on your breadboard, and include it in your report.

For high pass filters, use the resistor of 56 kΩ which is the closest on to 50 kΩ.

 Take screen shot of your Voltage vs time data after each stage of the circuit, including both Ch1
and Ch2 data.
You can follow the instruction for this procedure by watching this video:
https://minersutep-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/g/personal/mshokrekhod_miners_utep_edu/EQ-vrjjWm-
ZAhOvOcmhVNxkBrzHq8SfOgyy6jJjWCwfoZQ?e=Cio6Hn
 EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Module 7 – Pressure Sensor
Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

 Plot Pressure vs time for the input signal.

You can watch the video to complete this part. Please read below for your information:

Ch1 measures the input signal which is the raw voltage data from the pressure sensor. Export Ch1 data
and save it in .csv format with name of lab7data. Then import lab7data in MATLAB. The imported file
(lab7data) has two columns, the first column is time and second column is voltage data from the pressure
sensor. Use the formula you obtained in procedure 1 to convert second column (lab7data(:,2)) to pressure.
And plot pressure vs time.

 Determine the Systolic Pressure, the Diastolic Pressure, and the Mean Arterial Pressure from your
Pressure vs time figure.

You can watch the video to complete this part. Please read below for your information:

Look at signal that you measured at output of last stage using Ch2. Find the time where the pulsation
starts to appear. Then look at the plot of Pressure vs time (the one you plotted in Matlab) and read
pressure at this time. This value of the pressure is called systolic pressure.

Look at signal that you measured at output of last stage using Ch2. Find the time where the pulsation
intends to be stopped. Then look at the plot of Pressure vs time (the one you plotted in Matlab) and read
pressure at this time. This value of the pressure is called diastolic pressure.

Look at signal that you measured at output of last stage using Ch2. Find the time where the amplitude of
pulsation is maximum. Then look at the plot of Pressure vs time (the one you plotted in Matlab) and read
pressure at this time. This value of the pressure is called “Mean Arterial Pressure”.

Post- Lab – Step 1 Organize all of your Figures and tables neatly in your Word document. Figure caption is
placed at the bottom while table caption should be placed on top of the table. For any figure you copy
from website, please include reference number at the end of figure caption. Then cite to the website in
Reference section of your report.

Post- Lab – Step 2 In a few sentences, answer the following sentences. You can also answer them in
your Word doc if you want to type/need more room.
 EE 1105/1305 – Intro to Electrical and Computer Engineering
Module 7 – Pressure Sensor
Week of April 20th, 2020

Name:________________________________ Group:_____________

 In procedure 2, describe each stage of your circuit, the cut-off frequencies, and whether it is a
high pass filter, low pass filter or amplifier (using Bode plots). Explain what you expect to happen
to the signal after each filter. Refer to your Bode Plot figures in your explanation

Post- Lab – Step 3 In a few sentences, answer the following sentences. You can also answer them in
your Word doc if you want to type/need more room.

 Explain how did you determine the systolic pressure?

 Explain how did you determine the mean arterial pressure?

 Explain how did you determine the mean diastolic pressure?

Post- Lab – Step 4 Extra Credit:

Draw the schematic of your circuit using the Digikey Schematic Software. Link of access is
https://www.digikey.com/schemeit/project/

Post- Lab – Step 5 Include the Figures, add your answers and solutions in this document. Upload this
document in the respected folder in the blackboard for grading.