Physical Validation of a Residual Impedance Rejection Method during Ultra-Low Frequency Bio-Impedance Spectral Measurements

Abstract

Accurate and reliable measurement of the electrical impedance spectrum is an essential requirement in order to draw relevant conclusions in many fields and a variety of applications; in particular, for biological processes. Even in the state-of-the-art methods developed for this purpose, the accuracy and efficacy of impedance measurements are reduced in biological systems, due to the regular occurrence of parameters causing measurement errors such as residual impedance, parasitic capacitance, generator anomalies, and so on. Recent observations have reported the necessity of decreasing such inaccuracies whenever measurements are performed in the ultra-low frequency range, as the above-mentioned errors are almost entirely absent in such cases. The current research work proposes a method which can reject the anomalies listed above when measuring in the ultra-low frequency range, facilitating data collection at the same time. To demonstrate our hypothesis, originating from the consideration of the determinant role of the measuring frequency, a physical model is proposed to examine the effectiveness of our method by measuring across the commonly used vs. ultra-low frequency ranges. Validation measurements reflect that the range of frequencies and the accuracy is much greater than in state-of-the-art methods. Using the proposed new impedance examination technique, biological system characterization can be carried out more accurately.

Keywords

• electrical impedance spectrum measurement
• non-invasive testing of biological structures
• rejecting measurement errors
• residual impedances