Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which is caused by obstructions of the upper airway, is a syndrome with rising prevalence. Mandibular advancement splints (MAS) are oral appliances for potential treatment of OSA. This work proposes a highly-sensitive pressure sensing array integrated with a system-on-chip (SoC) embedded in a MAS. The device aims to measure tongue pressure distribution in order to determine the efficacy of the MAS for treating OSA. The flexible sensing array consists of an interdigital electrode pair array assembled with conductive polymer films and an SoC capable of retrieving/storing data during sleep, and transmitting data for analysis after sleep monitoring. The surfaces of the conductive polymer films were patterned with microdomed structures, which effectively increased the sensitivity and reduced the pressure sensing response time. The measured results also show that the crosstalk effect between the sensing elements of the array was negligible. The sensitivity of the sensing array changed minimally after the device was submerged in water for up to 100 h.
Keywords: conductive polymer; mandibular advancement splint; obstructive sleep apnea; pressure sensing array; system-on-chip.