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Designing of microcontroller based Syringe Pump with variable and low

delivery rates for the administration of small volumes

Conference Paper · October 2015

DOI: 10.1109/SIITME.2015.7342311

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 2015 IEEE 21st International Symposium for Design and Technology in Electronic Packaging (SIITME)
Designing of Microcontroller based Syringe Pump
with Variable and Low Delivery Rates for the
Administration of Small Volumes
Muhammad Ahmed Khan
Electrical Engineering & Information Technology
Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt, Germany
engineerahmedkhan@gmail.com
Sameed Tehami
Electrical Engineering & Information Technology
Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
Ingolstadt, Germany
Abstract— Delivering medications and fluids intravenously is a
common practice in modern medical procedures. Administering
medications or fluids directly into a patient’s blood circulation
results in a predictable and immediate absorption of the drug or
fluid administered, this may play a vital role in the treatment of
certain acute conditions which require immediate action by
drugs or fluids.
Syringe Pumps are highly useful in delivering a precise quantity
of the substance at specific periods of time as required. This
research presents a proposal to create a cost effective working
prototype of syringe pump for variable and low delivery rates for
the administration of small volumes. The presented Syringe
Pump utilizes a lead-screw mechanism that is driven by a stepper
motor which itself is controlled by an electronic circuit based on
an 89S52 microcontroller that works as the brain of the system
and controls all other peripherals like LCD, Keypad and other
components. Due to the possibility of the complete prototyping of
the syringe pump locally from the electronic hardware designing
to the code writing and to the mechanical assembly designing and
fabrication it allows us in future to modify this design in
accordance to the need of any related industry at home letting off
the dependency on manufacturers from other parts of the world
and may even allow us to export this cheaper product abroad.
Index Terms—Syringe pump, Lead screw mechanism, delivery
rates, 89S52 microcontroller.
I. INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Syringe pump or drug delivery system is a small infusion
pump used to slowly administer small amounts of fluid
(without or with medication) to a patient [1]. There are
different types of drug delivery system including fixed and
continuous delivery system. Continuous infusion usually
delivers small pulses of infusion, commonly between 500
nanoliters and 10000 microliters per hour [2] whereas the fixed
drug delivery system contains peristaltic pump that is large
978-1-5090-0332-7/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Osama Mazhar
Computer Vision and Robotics
University of Burgundy
Burgundy, France
osamazhar@yahoo.com
enough to feed a patient at required flow rate [3]. In infants,
concentrated drugs are mostly delivered using low infusion
rates (0.5 – 2 ml/h) to avoid volume overload and under such
conditions minor variations of flow rate can cause serious
hemodynamic instability.[4] [5] [6] [7]. There are different
methods for flow measurement including volumetric [8],
gravimetric [8] [9] [10] [11] and automatic [12] [14].
Automatic technique simply needs infusion line connected to
an inlet port and display volume readings and flow rate on the
screens [12] [13].
Safety of patient is one of the most significant features in the
development of syringe pumps and in past many functional
failure of syringe pumps have been reported [14] [15] [16].
Statistical results show that 39% errors occur while
administering drugs, 10% errors arise in pharmacy and 38%
errors are made when infusing drugs, 13% due to some other
reasons [17]. Hence this error can be minimized by integrating
control systems with syringe pumps via specialized controller
or computer which permits partial automation of human
interaction [18]
B. Objective and Scope
Drugs have been administered intravenously since more
than hundred years using different kinds of needles and
syringes. Early intravenous devices were manual, crude and
needed manual monitoring by the medical staff. The manual
devices could not be generally used without direct medical
supervision and assistance of the medical staff. The objective
of this research work is development of a cost effective
microcontroller based Syringe Pump that is capable of
delivering volumes as small as 0.1ml to as large as 12ml at
delivery rates as small as 0.1ml/hr to delivery rates as large as
999.9ml/hr with extra-ordinary accuracy and precision with
respect to both flow rate and volume
1 22-25 Oct 2015, Brasov, Romania
 2015 IEEE 21st International Symposium for Design and Technology in Electronic Packaging (SIITME)
Fig. 1. Flowchart representing Methodology Steps
II. MATERIALS AND METHODOLGY
This section will be covering all the materials and the tools
that are used while designing and fabricating the Syringe
Pump. It also talks about the principles and procedures that are
followed throughout the designing and fabrication of the
project. The development of the syringe pump began with
process of brain storming in order to identify the most efficient
and cost effective design. First of all, hardware has been
designed using simulation software which provided the basis
for syringe pump development. Then algorithm for
microcontroller was developed which was key part in order to
control the process of infusion. Hardware designing and
algorithmic development was followed by hardware
implementation which includes 74LS86 Exclusive-OR gate IC,
7476 J-K Flip Flop IC, Stepper Motor, Transformer, Bridge
Rectifier, Voltage Regulator IC, Crystal, Resistors, Capacitors
and 89S52 Microcontroller serving as the brain of the system.
Once the hardware was completed the prototype will be used to
test the project, correct eventual errors and enhance its
performance, taking in account the famous rule that states that
any project never works the first time, at least it does not work
as it is expected. The complete block diagram of used
methodology has been shown in Fig. 1 whereas Fig. 2 shows
all the software used during this project. The complete detail of
each step has been provided in later sections of paper
III. HARDWARE DESIGN
As the hardware part of the circuit is less flexible as
compared to the software that is to develop the code, it is
better to work on the hardware first then to develop the code
as it can be adapted to the hardware design easily.
The complete architectural design of syringe pump has
been shown in fig 3 along with its schematic layout in fig 4.
The process of hardware designing has been divided into 6
steps illustrated below:
Fig. 2. Softwares used
978-1-5090-0332-7/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
Fig. 3. Simulated Design of Syringe Pump
A. Interfacing Keypad and LCD to Micro-Controller Unit
(MCU) Circuit
A 4X4 Matrix Keypad was interfaced with the Micro-
Controller IC with its Rows being connected to the first four
pins of the PORT1 of the MCU and its columns being
connected to the first four pins of the PORT2 of MCU. A
16X2 Matrix LCD with LMB162A controller was connected
via Bus with its data lines to PORT3 of the MCU and the
control pins i.e., RS, RW and EN pins to P2^4, P2^5 and P2^6
of the MCU respectively. Before the circuit was tested it was
necessary to develop a code that incorporates the LCD and
Keypad with the Micro-Controller. So it becomes our next
target to move on to write a C-Code for the desired interface.
B. C-Code To Interface LCD And Keypad
The code was written in order to check whether the circuit
yet designed is working in co-operation with the C-code or
not. This has also benefited us having a basic structure of the
c-code which would be further enhanced until our required
function of the syringe pump is achieved
C. Stepper Motor Driver Circuit
Target to be achieved was set to design a simple circuit to
drive the stepper motor in both directions. For this regard, a
simple circuit was made on the software that consisted of a J-
K Flip Flop and an Ex-OR Gate IC. The circuit has an ability
to drive the stepper motor ―step by step‖ when a High-To-Low
Pulse is applied at the J-K Flip Flop ―Clock‖ Input Pins. An
Input at one of the four Ex-OR Gates of the IC is made to be
set High or Low manually in the initial steps of the Hardware
development which was meant to change the direction of the
Stepper Motor.
Incorporation of the Stepper Motor Driver Circuit
The stepper motor circuit which was developed has been
merged with the previously designed interfacing circuit
containing LCD, Keypad and MCU. The point here to be
noticed is that the LEDs connected at the four respective
outputs of the J-K Flip Flop are representing the connections
of the stepper motor and are arranged in the sequence as
required in the motor. So in the simulation of this project
Fig. 4. Schematic Layout
2 22-25 Oct 2015, Brasov, Romania
 2015 IEEE 21st International Symposium for Design and Technology in Electronic Packaging (SIITME)

D. Incorporation of the Stepper Motor Driver Circuit

The stepper motor circuit which was developed has been
merged with the previously designed interfacing circuit
containing LCD, Keypad and MCU. The point here to be
noticed is that the LEDs connected at the four respective
outputs of the J-K Flip Flop are representing the connections
of the stepper motor and are arranged in the sequence as
required in the motor. So in the simulation of this project these
LED’s will be representing the running of the stepper motor
till the end. Though it was possible to use a stepper motor too
in the simulation but LEDs were thought to have a better
representation of the Pulses going to the Motor Coils.
E. Current Reinforcement Circuit
As the circuit yet designed cannot drive a stepper motor by
itself, as the logic outputs cannot supply nearly enough
current. Therefore the next step would be to design a required
current reinforcement circuit for the stepper motor driver
circuit to actuate a stepper motor in real. In order to provide
current amplification, transistors like IRF640, TIP31, TIP120
or similar can be used. Now when using MOSFETs like
IRF640, it should be kept in mind that for their proper
switching, the gate must be provided with sufficient amount of
current itself to open completely. Thus using another current
amplification IC i.e., ULN2003A the logic outputs from the J-
K Flip Flop was amplified then was fed to the gates of
IRF640.
Fig. 5. Flow chart of algorithmic approach
F. Finalizing Hardware Design
Several other components were added in the circuit like moving the block left or right according to the position of the
LEDs for indication of the pulses, Connectors, Switches, plunger of the syringe. Speed of the motor in Manual Mode or
Voltage regulator IC 7805 for stepping down +12V supply in other words Delay between the pulses to the motor is set
voltage to +5V for powering up Micro-Controller IC, LCD randomly by taking the user’s ease into account. Within
and other ICs and components etc. The complete simulated program mode, the program requires inputs from user
circuit looked like as shown in fig.3. Now as the Hardware including patient ID, flow rate and volume. If all the inputs are
design of the electronic circuit is complete, the next step inserted correctly then it will initiate the process of infusion
would be the development of the complete code for the Micro- and will continue until the desired time. The final algorithmic
Controller to take charge of all the desired activities of the approach of syringe pump has been shown in the flow chart
Syringe Pump accurately. represented in fig. 5.

IV. ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT V. HARDWARE IMPLEMENTATION

Algorithmic development is one of the most critical steps in
designing any application as it is the set of instructions that
controls ―what‖, ―when‖ and ―how‖ to accomplish a task on a
particular signal. The basic goal of this algorithm was to make
it less complex, more accurate and intelligent. Hence the
program first waits for the syringe to be attach to the patient
and will then ask user to select either ―Manual Mode‖ or
―Program Mode‖. Manual Mode is made such that the Syringe
Pump must be controlled with two switches on the keypads
A. PCB Designing
After the development of the algorithm and schematics of
the electronic circuit, the next step was designing the PC
Board for the electronic circuit (Fig. 6 and 7). ARES software
from the same package as ISIS was used to transfer the
schematics and to design its PC Board. With the development
of the Printed Circuit Board of the circuit of Syringe Pump the
Engineering Process of Designing of the Electronic Circuit
came to its probable end with all targets successfully achieved.

Th

Fig. 6. PCB View with Components Fig. 7. PCB Designing

978-1-5090-0332-7/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 3 22-25 Oct 2015, Brasov, Romania

 2015 IEEE 21st International Symposium for Design and Technology in Electronic Packaging (SIITME)
Fig. 8. Mechanical Assembly
B. Mechanical Assembly
The materials used in the fabrication of the mechanical
assembly of the syringe pump have been shown in fig. 8.
Aluminum blocks are used for the purpose of holding the
syringe and as a holder for the plunger to be moved by the
actuator. Polished and anodized aluminum plate is used as the
base for the complete mechanism to provide the slide
mechanism with reasonable stability. Mild Steel Rod is used
to make a screw for the proposed lead-screw mechanism. The
diameter of the rod selected in 6mm with the Pitch of the
screw being 1mm. Bushes are used for smooth movement.
Bushes present in the Moving Block of syringe pump are
made up of brass. Brass, usually copper alloyed with zinc, is
easily shaped, stamped and deep drawn. It has excellent
forming and drawing properties and good strength. Three
Thumb Screws are fabricated of Brass, two for tightening the
Stainless Steel Plate that holds the Finger Tabs of the syringe
and one for tightening of the Thumb Tab on the moving block
whereas moving block slides over the rods which are made up
of stainless steel.
VI. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This report actually covers all the procedures of Research
and Development of a Syringe Pump that started with the
brainstorming of the concepts and comes to end with an
effective prototyping of a syringe pump. After fabrication of
syringe pump it has been tested via clinical surveys where it
was proved that it is capable of delivering volumes as small as
0.1ml to as large as 12ml at delivery rates as small as 0.1ml/hr
to delivery rates as large as 999.9ml/hr with extra-ordinary
accuracy and precision with respect to both flow rate and
volume.
There are several more ideas that are intended to be made
into reality as far as the future perspective is concerned. The
first and the foremost is to add an option to select between
several syringe sizes that is required usually by the users. The
second thing to be added is a Serial EEPROM in the project
that it may store the data in its memory and can be restored
even after the syringe pump is turned off. The third important
978-1-5090-0332-7/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
View publication stats
thing that is to be added in the syringe pump is the Serial RS-
232 Interface that may allow the engineers to update the
software of the microcontroller if any up-gradation in the code
occurs. The fourth and yet important idea for the near future is
the development of the GUI Software for the syringe pump
that it may be handled through a Personal Desktop Computer.
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4 22-25 Oct 2015, Brasov, Romania