Integration of an ultrasound sensor in a plunger stopper of an injection device

US11439763B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Sanofi · FR

Inventors

• Bernd Kuehn · Frankfurt am Main, DE
• Michael Schabbach · Weinheim, DE
• Dietmar Hammen · Frankfurt am Main, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 12, 2018
• Grant date: Sep 13, 2022
• Expiry date: Jun 28, 2039

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G16H20/17
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Implementations of the present disclosure are directed to an injection device (102) that includes a medicament reservoir (103), a stopper (105) including a rigid core (125) and an ultrasound probe (122) disposed in a housing, the ultrasound probe configured to transmit an emitted ultrasound signal through the rigid core along a longitudinal direction of the rigid core into the medicament reservoir and to receive an ultrasound signal generated by reflections of the emitted ultrasound signal, the reflections including at least a reflection from a distal end of the medicament reservoir, a control component (124a) configured to be electronically coupled with the ultrasound probe and to process the ultrasound signal to generate injection device data, and an antenna (124c) configured to be electronically coupled with the control component and to transmit the injection device data to an external computing device (104).