An oximeter is a device used in hospitals to monitor the oxygen level in a patient’s blood.
In an oximeter, two light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are mounted opposite light sensors in a clip and attached to the patient’s finger. One of the LEDs produces red light and the other produces infrared.
The intensity of electromagnetic radiation received by the detector, after passing through a thickness of blood, is given by
where is the intensity that would have been received if the blood were not present and is the attenuation coefficient of blood.
The red LED emits visible light of wavelength 650 nm and the infrared LED emits infrared of wavelength 950 nm.
The graph shows how varies with wavelength for oxygenated blood and deoxygenated blood.
for the infrared LED is 1.8 W m
–2.
Calculate
for the infrared after passing through 1.4 mm of oxygenated blood.
= .......................................................