Temperature detection system for Renal Denervation Catheter application

Hypertension, in other words called high blood pressure, is a chronic and serious medical condition that considerably increases the risks of other ailments associated with the heart, brain, and kidney. Minimally invasive catheter-based renal denervation procedure is an effective way to treat hypertension for patients whose blood pressure level was unable to be brought under control by medication. However, for such systems an accurate temperature monitoring system is required to control the ablation power for a successful procedure and to avoid unwanted tissue damage. In this paper, the development of a platinum-based resistance temperature detector is presented. The temperature sensor is modeled using finite element analysis simulation and realized by silicon microfabrication. To ensure the performance of each fabricated sensor die, the test and characterization methodology of the sensor is translated and carried out using fully automatic test equipment. In this work, we are able to achieve a relatively large change in resistance of more than 15% with respect to the temperature change from 20 °C to 85 °C. Platinum as sensor material provided a linear relationship between change in resistance and temperature. This biocompatible resistance temperature detector sensor with its linear and consistent performance will allow us to accurately monitor the temperature in the renal denervation application.