CN111281381A

CN111281381A - Electrode and equipment for keeping long-term wetting of contact part

Info

Publication number: CN111281381A
Application number: CN202010175521.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 裴为华; 查爱华; 吴晓婷; 王毅军; 田森
Original assignee: Jiangsu Jicui Brain Machine Integration Intelligent Technology Research Institute Co Ltd; Institute of Semiconductors of CAS
Current assignee: Jiangsu Jicui Brain Machine Integration Intelligent Technology Research Institute Co Ltd; Institute of Semiconductors of CAS
Priority date: 2020-03-13
Filing date: 2020-03-13
Publication date: 2020-06-16

Abstract

The invention discloses an electrode for keeping a contact part wet for a long time, which comprises a main body and a plurality of electrodes formed on the main body, wherein a liquid storage cavity is formed at one side of the main body, and a connecting pipe communicated with the liquid storage cavity is formed on the main body; the electrode is also provided with a delivery pipe communicated with the connecting pipe, and the delivery pipe is provided with a liquid outlet at the end part of the electrode far away from the main body. The scheme of the invention provides a structure which can convey water or liquid to the tail end of the electrode and wet the tested interface, thereby greatly reducing the impedance of the tested interface and effectively solving the problem that good brain electrical signals are difficult to obtain due to overlarge impedance of the electrode/skin interface when the dry electrode is used.

Description

Electrode and equipment for keeping long-term wetting of contact part

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of brain-computer interaction auxiliary equipment, and particularly relates to a semi-dry electrode and equipment using the same, in particular to an electrode for keeping a contact part wet for a long time and application equipment of the electrode, wherein the application equipment comprises an electroencephalogram cap, an electroencephalogram measuring instrument, an electroencephalogram therapeutic instrument and the like.

Background

As a form of brain-computer interactive application, electroencephalography (EEG) is primarily used to diagnose intracranial organic pathologies in humans, such as: examination of epilepsy, encephalitis, cerebrovascular diseases, intracranial space occupying lesions and the like. With the development of science and technology, the application of electroencephalogram signals is more extensive, such as brain-computer interface (BCI).

At present, electrodes for measuring electroencephalogram signals generally adopt silver/silver chloride electrodes and pure metal electrodes. The silver/silver chloride electrode is a wet electrode, and is matched with conductive adhesive in use, and the conductive adhesive is easy to dry, so that the attenuation of collected signals is caused, and the long-term monitoring of electroencephalogram signals is not facilitated. And residual conductive adhesive on the skin needs to be cleaned after the electroencephalogram signal is measured by using the wet electrodes, which is time-consuming and labor-consuming. The contact impedance between the pure metal dry electrode and the skin is larger than that of the wet electrode, so that the effect of measuring the electroencephalogram signals is not as good as that of the wet electrode.

From a search of the prior art literature, it was found that r.luttge, s.n.bystova and m.j.a.m.van puntten, 4th European Conference, International filing for medical and Biological Engineering (2009)1246-1249, written "micro array electrode for human EEG recording" ("for recording an EEGD Microneedle array electrode", European Conference of the fourth International medical and Biological Engineering society), proposed a dry Microneedle electrode prepared based on MEMS process. The principle of the electrode is that the micro-needle is used for puncturing the epidermis and the dermis of the skin to be contacted, so that the impedance between the electrode and the skin is reduced, and electroencephalogram signals are measured. The dry electrodes belong to invasive electrodes, and the micro-needles on the electrodes can pierce the skin to cause skin infection, so that a user feels uncomfortable during the use process. At present, a lot of non-invasive dry electrodes are researched, but the contact impedance between the dry electrodes and the skin is larger than that between the wet electrodes and the micro-needle electrodes and the skin, the electroencephalogram signals are in a microvolt level, and the effect of acquiring the electroencephalogram signals by the dry electrodes is poor.

The brain electricity electrode can convert the biological potential formed by the ion concentration fluctuation into an electronic current or voltage signal, and is a very key device in the brain-computer interface technology. Traditional brain electricity collection electrode is wet electrode, and wet electrode eliminates the galvanic isolation of hair and the interface of scalp formation lower impedance through the wet effect of conductive paste, and conductive paste use is loaded down with trivial details complicated, needs the professional to pour into one by one, and secondly, remains after the conductive paste uses and need rinse immediately, and in addition, moisture in the conductive paste can evaporate along with the time, does not utilize long-term monitoring. These deficiencies limit conventional wet electrodes to laboratory applications.

The dry electrode sensing technology is applied to the defects of the wet electrode. The dry electrode does not need to use conductive paste and does not need to be cleaned after use, so that the convenience of electroencephalogram collection is greatly improved. The dry electrodes do not have the auxiliary effect of the conductive paste, and structurally need to overcome the hair blockage by themselves to directly form a contact interface with the scalp, so that most of the dry electrodes are designed into columnar or claw-shaped structures to pull open the hair. In the absence of a wet interface, the dry electrode is in direct contact with the scalp and generally has a high interface impedance, and when the interface impedance is high, noise is easily introduced to cause signal quality reduction. Meanwhile, a certain pressure needs to be given for the stable contact of the dry electrode, and the wearing comfort degree is poor in long-term experiments.

The semi-dry electrode is an electrode integrating the advantages of the dry and wet electrodes. Are typically made of porous materials that provide a moist, residue-free interface between the scalp and the electrodes due to the ability to absorb large amounts of electrolyte. However, the wetting action of the electrode needs to have stable and proper pressure, when the pressure is slightly larger, the flowing electrolyte is easy to crosstalk because of the fact that the flowing electrolyte does not have the viscosity of the conductive paste, and secondly, the electrolyte is easy to lose moisture compared with the conductive paste, so that the quality of electroencephalogram signals is stable.

Based on the problems of the above semi-dry electrodes, it is urgently needed to develop an electrode sensing technology which can stably and comfortably maintain a wet interface for a long time and can control the flow of electrolyte without crosstalk so as to solve the problem of convenient high-quality extraction of electroencephalogram signals in a brain-computer interface technology.

Disclosure of Invention

The electrode for keeping the contact part wet for a long time is provided with a liquid storage cavity at the proper part of the dry electrode, and one or more superfine grooves or capillaries are processed on the electrode and connected with a liquid storage tank, so that the liquid in the liquid storage tank can reach the interface of the electrode/scalp through the fine grooves or capillaries, and the impedance of the interface of the electrode and the scalp can be greatly reduced.

The invention discloses an electrode for keeping a contact part wet for a long time, which comprises a main body and a plurality of electrodes formed on the main body, wherein the electrodes are made of common electrode materials, such as a polymer substrate surface layer covered with an Ag/AgCl coating, or are directly sintered into electrodes by Ag/AgCl powder or other traditional metal-based electrode materials;

a liquid storage cavity is formed at one side of the main body, and a connecting pipe communicated with the liquid storage cavity is formed on the main body; the body is formed with one or more closed or semi-closed cavities in which water or other liquid may be temporarily stored to ensure that the electrodes are constantly wetted during use.

The electrode is also provided with a delivery pipe communicated with the connecting pipe, and the delivery pipe is provided with a liquid outlet at the end part of the electrode far away from the main body. The delivery pipe is formed by processing one or more fine grooves or channels on the electrode, and the inner walls of the grooves and the channels are subjected to hydrophilic treatment to allow water or liquid to pass through in a penetrating manner. One end of a capillary water delivery structure formed by the delivery pipe and the delivery pipe is connected with the liquid storage cavity, the other end of the capillary water delivery structure is connected with the tail end of the electrode, water or liquid can continuously permeate from the liquid storage cavity to the tail end of the electrode through the capillary liquid delivery structure to wet a tested position, the impedance of an electrode/skin interface is reduced, and good brain electrical signals can be obtained.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping a contact part wet for a long time.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part, wherein a connecting pipe and/or a conveying pipe are/is a siphon pipe.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part, wherein a main body is in a disc shape, and a plurality of electrodes are uniformly distributed along the circumference on one side of the disc-shaped main body.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part, wherein a plurality of electrodes are uniformly distributed on one side edge of a disc-shaped main body.

The invention discloses an improvement of an electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part, wherein a plurality of connecting pipes are integrally distributed on a main body in a radial shape, one end of each connecting pipe is connected to a liquid storage cavity, and the other end of each connecting pipe is connected to a conveying pipe of the electrode.

The equipment applying the electrode for keeping the contact part wet for a long time comprises an electroencephalogram cap, an electroencephalogram instrument, an electroencephalogram treatment instrument and the like.

Further, an electrode for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact site, comprising:

a liquid storage cavity for storing water or other liquid required by the electrode in use;

a capillary water transport structure, an ultra fine groove or capillary, for transporting water or liquid; compared with the traditional semi-dry electrode, the structure combining the liquid storage tank and the capillary water conveying tank has nothing to do with whether the electrode material absorbs water or not and whether the electrode material is porous or stores water, so that the selection range of the semi-dry electrode material is widened.

An improvement of an electrode for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact part, wherein a liquid storage cavity is formed by processing one or more closed or semi-closed cavities capable of storing water or other conductive liquid on an electrode body, and the water or other liquid can be temporarily stored in the cavity so as to ensure that the electrode can be continuously in a wetting state during use;

an improvement of electrode for keeping contact part wet in long time, wherein the capillary water-transporting structure is that one or more fine grooves or pore canals are processed on the electrode body (equivalent to a plurality of electrodes formed on the main body, the lower part is the same), one end is connected with the liquid storage pool, the other end is connected with the electrode terminal, namely the position contacted with the measured point (scalp, body skin, etc.), the inner wall of the capillary water-transporting structure can adopt hydrophilic treatment to facilitate water or liquid to wet the measured point uninterruptedly.

The electrode of the invention can still use common electrode materials, such as a high molecular substrate surface layer covered with an Ag/AgCl coating, or directly uses Ag/AgCl powder to sinter into an electrode, or other traditional metal-based electrode materials, one or more liquid storage pools are processed on a main body, one or more capillary liquid conveying structures are processed on an electrode body, one end of each capillary liquid conveying structure is connected with the liquid storage pool, the other end of each capillary liquid conveying structure is connected with the tail end of the electrode, water or liquid required by the liquid storage pool is injected in the liquid storage pool before use, and a relatively closed and complete pollution-free conveying channel is formed, so that the liquid cannot penetrate the surface of the electrode to form pollution in the conveying process, has a smaller penetrating surface, and can obtain a longer working time, therefore, when the electrode is used, the water or the liquid can continuously penetrate from the liquid storage pools to the tail end of the electrode through the siphonage of the capillary liquid conveying, wetting the tested position, greatly reducing the impedance of the tested interface and obtaining good brain electrical signals. The structure is suitable for various electrodes for collecting bioelectricity signals.

The invention has the following advantages:

compared with other semi-dry or wet electrodes, the capillary water delivery structure has stronger channel characteristics (compared with the surface porous state of a porous electrode, the capillary water delivery structure has the advantages of uniformity and stronger advantages in the aspects of liquid flow control, pollution resistance, blockage resistance, cost control and the like), only releases liquid at a liquid outlet at the end part of the electrode, reduces the exposure and evaporation of the liquid at the contact part of the electrode/scalp to the maximum extent, and can prolong the time of keeping a wet interface of the electrode;

the method has the advantages that: the adoption of the capillary water delivery structure abandons the traditional water absorption materials (physical water absorption represents sponge and chemical water absorption represents gel), has no liquid residue in the water absorption materials, and improves the use efficiency of the auxiliary liquid of the electrode.

Advantage 3, compare with the dry electrode that does not take the capillary structure, the impedance after the moist interface reduces, and the pressure that the electrode oppressed the scalp can be reduced correspondingly, and the electrode both has the low impedance and has improved the comfort level.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is an ergonomic form schematic of an electrode of the present invention for maintaining long term wetting of a contact site;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of one embodiment of an electrode of the present invention for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact site;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the flow regime of the embodiment of FIG. 2.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to embodiments shown in the drawings. The embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and structural, methodological, or functional changes made by those skilled in the art according to the embodiments are included in the scope of the present invention.

The electrode for keeping contact parts wet for a long time comprises a main body 1 (the main body 1 can adopt any shape or structure as required, as long as the main body can meet the arrangement of a liquid storage cavity 2 and a related water delivery system, and a delivery pipe 6 connected to a part of an electrode 4, such as the matching arrangement of a connecting pipe 5, for example, a main body 1 in a shape of a nearly circular disc is shown in figures 1-3), a plurality of electrodes 4 formed on the main body 1 (the main body 1 can be integrated and can also be detachable, such as a socket plugging type, as long as the delivery pipe 6 is communicated with the arrangement of the connecting pipe 5 when in a working state), the liquid storage cavity 2 is formed on one side of the main body 1, the connecting pipe 5 communicated with the liquid storage cavity 2 is formed on the main body 1, and the liquid storage cavity 2 and the electrode 4 are respectively formed on two sides of the main body 1 in figures 2 and 3, this facilitates the taking and mounting of the whole electrode 4; the electrode 4 is also formed with a delivery tube 6 communicating with the connection tube 5. The conveying pipe 6 herein may be formed with one or several on the same electrode 4, and the conveying pipe 6 is formed with a liquid outlet 7 at the end of the electrode 4 far from the main body 1, certainly, the corresponding liquid outlet 7 formed at the end may also be one, or may be provided with a plurality of, certainly, the liquid outlet 7 and the conveying pipe 6 may be arranged in one-to-one manner, or the conveying pipes 6 may be integrated into one liquid outlet 7 at the end of the electrode 4, or one conveying pipe 6 may be divided into a plurality of liquid outlets 7 in the form of branched pipelines or mesh outlets, which do not affect the implementation of the present solution. In order to achieve a stable, uniform, safe and continuous delivery of the liquid from the reservoir chamber 2 under operating conditions, the delivery tube 6 may be a siphon tube, in which case the liquid in the connecting tube 5 is delivered by the siphon action of the delivery tube 6. The connection pipe 5 may be a siphon pipe, and in this case, the liquid is discharged into the transfer pipe 6 by the siphon action of the connection pipe 5. The two can be adopted simultaneously, and the implementation of the scheme is not influenced by the simultaneous adoption.

In the above-mentioned solution, in order to make the liquid storage chamber 2 obtain good water delivery performance and have sufficient intracavity volume, an accumulation body 3 protruding from the side to the outside of the main body 1 is further formed on one side of the main body 1, the liquid storage chamber 2 is formed in the accumulation body 3 and is formed at the fluid infusion port on the surface of the accumulation body 3, but it may also include extending the liquid storage chamber 2 into the main body 1, so as to further obtain sufficient liquid storage.

In the above-described embodiment, the reservoir 3 is further provided with a cap that is fittingly and hermetically provided to the fluid infusion port, and can be used at a plurality of angles in order to improve safety and contamination resistance. It should be noted that the connection of the connecting tube 5 to the liquid storage chamber 2 may be connected to the bottom of the liquid storage chamber 2, or to the side wall thereof, or may be connected in multiple schemes simultaneously, so as to satisfy the siphon requirements in different directions of use

In the above solution, when several connection tubes 5 are provided, they may be distributed radially on the whole body, as in the case shown in fig. 2, and connected at one end to the reservoir chamber and at the other end to the delivery tube of the electrode. At this time, the plurality of connection pipes 5 are radially distributed on the main body as a whole centering on the liquid storage chamber. Of course, the connecting tube 5 for delivering the liquid from the liquid storage chamber to the delivery tube may be delivered from the infusion chamber to the delivery tube in a branched form. Including but not limited to these arrangements, all affect implementation of the present solution.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 1-3, the electrode for keeping the contact site permanently wetted is a complete product comprising a reservoir 3 connected to a body 1 and formed with a reservoir chamber 2, an electrode 4 connected to the other side of the body 1, the electrode 4 being formed with a capillary 6 extending from the body 1 to its end, the body in the figure being in the form of a disc, and a plurality of electrodes being evenly distributed circumferentially along the rim on one side of the disc. And a liquid outlet 7 is formed at the end of the electrode, a connection tube 5 is formed on the main body 1 and communicates the capillary 6 with the liquid storage chamber 2, and it can be seen that the connection tube is provided in several corresponding to the number of electrodes. In the example, the electrode is a polymer substrate coated with Ag/AgCL coating, and the liquid storage cavity 2 is a semi-closed cavity formed on the electrode body; the capillary 6 including the delivery tube and the connection tube may be a fine groove machined on the electrode; the liquid outlet 7 is a fine capillary channel processed on the electrode;

when the liquid-storing type electrode is used, the product is fixed on the skin, the end part of the electrode 4 is contacted with the skin, water or liquid is injected into the liquid-storing cavity 2, the water or the liquid enters the connecting pipe 5 and permeates into the liquid outlet 7 through the capillary 6 to reach the tail end of the electrode, and an electrode/skin interface is wetted, as shown in figure 1, the interface impedance is effectively reduced, and correct electroencephalogram signals can be collected by the electrode.

Because water and liquid only permeate in a small amount, can not cause remaining basically, the user generally can not feel uncomfortable, and only interface part is moist, can not cause water or liquid to volatilize too fast, nevertheless because the interface is effectively moist, but can improve signal acquisition's quality greatly, convenient and practical.

The product of the scheme can be accessed and applied in electroencephalogram caps, electroencephalogram measuring instruments, electroencephalogram therapeutic instruments and the like, and can be accessed as a conventional electrode component.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned.

Furthermore, it should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment may contain only a single embodiment, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should integrate the description, and the embodiments may be combined as appropriate to form other embodiments understood by those skilled in the art.

Claims

1. An electrode for keeping long-term wetting of a contact part comprises a main body and a plurality of electrodes formed on the main body,

a liquid storage cavity is formed at one side of the main body, and a connecting pipe communicated with the liquid storage cavity is formed on the main body;

the electrode is also provided with a delivery pipe communicated with the connecting pipe, and the delivery pipe is provided with a liquid outlet at the end part of the electrode far away from the main body.

2. The electrode of claim 1, wherein a reservoir is formed on one side of the body and protrudes from the body, and the reservoir is formed in the reservoir and is formed at a fluid infusion port on a surface of the reservoir.

3. The electrode for maintaining long term wetting of a contact site as recited in claim 2, wherein the reservoir is further provided with a cap that is fittingly sealingly disposed to the fluid infusion port.

4. The electrode for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact according to claim 1, wherein the connecting tube and/or the delivery tube is a siphon tube.

5. An electrode for maintaining long term wetting of a contact according to claim 1, wherein the body is disk shaped and the plurality of electrodes are evenly circumferentially distributed on one side of the disk shaped body.

6. An electrode for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact according to claim 5, wherein the plurality of electrodes are evenly distributed along one side edge of the disc-shaped body.

7. The electrode for maintaining long-term wetting of a contact site according to claim 1, wherein the connection tube is provided in a number corresponding to the number of electrodes.

8. The electrode for maintaining long term wetting of a contact site according to claim 7, wherein the plurality of connecting tubes are generally radially spaced on the body and are connected at one end to the reservoir and at the other end to a delivery tube of the electrode.

9. The electrode for maintaining long term wetting of a contact according to claim 8, wherein the plurality of connecting tubes are radially spaced around the reservoir on the body.

10. A device employing an electrode as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 for maintaining long term wetting of a contact site.