Integrated Laser Doppler Blood Flowmeter Designed to Enable Wafer-Level Packaging

The authors propose a new sensor structure for an integrated laser Doppler blood flowmeter that consists of two silicon cavities with a PD and laser diode inside each cavity. A silicon lid formed with a converging microlens completes the package. This structure, which was achieved using micromachining techniques, features reduced optical power loss in the sensor, resulting in its small size and significantly low power consumption. Measurements using a model tissue blood flow system confirmed that the new sensor had high linearity and a wide dynamic range for measuring tissue blood flow.