Electronic marking of a medication cartridge

• US 20020022821A1
• Filed: 08/09/2001
• Published: 02/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Novo Nordisk A/S
• Original Assignee: Novo Nordisk A/S
• Inventors: Eilersen, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 6,669,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 604/404
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/6027 Electric-conductive bridges closing detection circuits, with or without identifying elements, e.g. resistances, zener-diodes
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/24 Ampoule syringes, i.e. syringes with needle for use in combination with replaceable ampoules or carpules, e.g. automatic ampoules or carpules A61J1/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/067 Record carriers with conductive marks, printed circuits or semiconductor circuit elements, e.g. credit or identity cards also with resonating or responding marks without active components
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10 by electromagnetic radiation, e.g. optical sensing; by corpuscular radiation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/10861 sensing of data fields affixed to objects or articles, e.g. coded labels postal sorting B07C3/14, conveying articles B65G47/48

Abstract

The invention relates to: A method of providing an electronically readable item of information (725) on a medication cartridge (70). The invention further relates to a cartridge (70) containing an electronically readable item of information (725), a support (75) for reading the information (725) on the cartridge (70), a medication delivery device adapted to use a cartridge (70) and a support (75) according to the invention and a label (72) containing an electronically readable item of information (725). The object of the present invention is to provide an alternative method of generating an electronically readable item of information on a cartridge which method is simple and improves safety in reading. The problem is solved in that said item of information is redundantly provided (725, 726). The invention may e.g. be used in connection with medication delivery devices for self-treatment of a disease, e.g. diabetes.

Claims

1. A method of providing an electronically readable item of information (725) on a medication cartridge (70), characterized in that

said item of information (725) is redundantly provided.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that

said item of information (725) is provided at least once in a binary true (725) and inverted form (726).

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that

said item of information is provided in any one of its binary forms by forming electrically insulating (7251) and electrically conducting (7261) areas corresponding to the relevant state of each bit of information in predefined positions on the surface of the cartridge (70).

4. A method according to claim 3, characterized in that

said medication cartridge (10) has an axis of rotational symmetry (11).

5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that

said electrically insulating or electrically conducting areas fully or partially circumfere said axis of symmetry (11), thus defining two or more information carrying areas (105, 106;

103, 104), each containing said item of information in its binary true or inverted form, on said cartridge (10).

6. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that

said electrically insulating or electrically conducting areas are positioned in one or more longitudinal areas (120) stretching in the direction of said axis of symmetry (11), each longitudinal area covering only a fraction (121) of the circumference of said cartridge (10), thus defining two or more information carrying areas (115, 116;

117, 118), each containing said item of information in its binary true or inverted form, on said cartridge.

7. A method according to any one of claims 1-6, characterized in that

said item of information is provided in any one of its binary forms by applying electrically insulating areas (356, 367) to predefined positions on an electrically conducting foil (36), said foil being positioned on said cartridge.

8. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that

said item of information is read by applying a voltage to said electrically conducting foil (720), said voltage corresponding to the supply voltage of one of the logic levels of a digital processing circuit (761), and by connecting each predefined position on the foil electrically with inputs to said digital processing circuit (761).

9. A method according to claim 8, characterized in that

said inputs to the digital processing circuit are provided with pull-up or pull-down circuitry according to which of the supply voltages of the logic levels of said digital processing circuit (761) is applied to said electrically conducting foil (720).

10. A method according to claim 9, characterized in that

said inputs to the digital processing circuit (761) may be selectably provided with either pull-up or pull-down circuitry according to which of the supply voltages of the logic levels of said digital processing circuit is correspondingly selectably applied to said electrically conducting foil (720), said selection being controlled by said digital processing unit (761).

11. A method according to any one of claims 1-10, characterized in that

the redundant information from two or more information carrying areas (725, 726) on the cartridge (70) is transferred to a contact area (763, 764) that is connected (762) to a processing circuit (761) by supporting means (75) for the cartridge (70), the supporting means (75) being at least partially constituted by two or more electrically connecting supports (751, 752), each comprising a number of closely spaced mutually electrically insulated conductors (7511) embedded in an electrically insulating material (7512, 755) that stretches from one of the supporting surfaces of the cartridge (70) to a contact area (763, 764) for receiving and transferring the information to said processing circuit, when said cartridge (70) is positioned in said support (75).

12. A method according to claim 11, characterized in that

each of said two or more electrically connecting supports (751, 752) is constituted by alternating layers of electrically conducting material (7511) of maximum thickness T_cl and electrically insulating material (7512) of maximum thickness T_il, respectively.

13. A method according to claim 12, characterized in that

said alternating layers (7511, 7512) are made of elastic materials.

15. A medication cartridge according to claim 14, characterized in that

said item of information (725) is formed on a self-adhesive carrier (72) positioned on the surface of the cartridge (70).

16. A medication cartridge according to claim 14 or 15, characterized in that

said cartridge (10) has an axis (11) of rotational symmetry.

17. A medication cartridge according to claim 16, characterized in that

information carrying areas (103, 104;

105, 106;

115, 116) containing said item of information in its true and inverted forms, respectively, are positioned side by side in the direction of said axis (11) of symmetry of said cartridge (10).

18. A medication cartridge according to claim 16, characterized in that

information carrying areas (101, 102;

110, 111, 112, 113, 114;

117, 118) containing said item of information in its true and inverted forms, respectively, are positioned side by side in the direction of a circumference of said axis (11) of symmetry of said cartridge (10).

19. A medication cartridge according to claim 18, characterized in that

information carrying areas (721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727) containing said item of information in its true and inverted forms, respectively, appear alternatingly a multitude of times in a direction of a circumference of said axis (71) of symmetry of said cartridge (70).

14. A medication cartridge (70) with an information-providing source (72) containing an electronically readable item of information (725), characterized in that

said item of information (725) is redundantly provided (725, 726) at least once by applying electrically insulating (7251) and electrically conducting (7261) areas corresponding to the relevant state of each bit of information in predefined positions on the surface of the cartridge (70).

20. A medication cartridge according to any one of claims 14-19, characterized in that

said item of information is provided in any of its binary forms by applying electrically insulating areas in predefined positions on the surface of an electrically conducting foil (36) positioned on said cartridge in such a way that an electrically insulating area (356, 367) is applied at those predefined positions representing one predefined binary state, and an electrically conductive area (357, 366)) is provided at those predefined positions representing the complementary binary state.

21. A medication cartridge according to any one of claims 14-20, characterized in that

said item of electronically readable information is provided on the cartridge in an optically readable form.

29. A medication delivery device having means for processing (761) and displaying information, characterized in that

it is adapted for receiving a cartridge (70) according to any one of claims 14-21, and it comprises a support (75) according to any one of claims 22-28 for electronically reading an item of information (725) on said cartridge (70), and said support (75) transfers said item of information from said cartridge to a contact area (763, 764) connected (762) with said processing means (761).

22. A support (75) for a medication cartridge (70) provided with an electronically readable item of information (725) characterized in that

said item of information (725) being redundantly provided at least once by forming at least two information carrying areas (725, 726) containing electrically insulating (7251) and electrically conducting (7261) areas corresponding to the relevant state of each bit of information in predefined positions on the surface of said cartridge (70), and said support (75) for the cartridge is at least partially constituted by two or more electrically connecting supports (751, 752;

801, 802, 803), each comprising a number of closely spaced mutually electrically insulated conductors (7511) embedded in an electrically insulating material (7512, 755) that stretches from one of the supporting surfaces of the cartridge to a contact area (763, 764) for receiving and transferring the information to a processing circuit (761), when said cartridge (70) is positioned in said support (75).

23. A support according to claim 22, characterized in that

each of said two or more electrically connecting supports (751, 752;

801, 802, 803) is constituted by alternating layers of electrically conducting material (7511) of maximum thickness T_cl (540) and electrically insulating material (7512) of maximum thickness T_il (530), respectively.

24. A support according to claim 23, characterized in that

said cartridge (70) has an axis (71) of rotational symmetry, and said contact area (763, 764) consists of groups of identical and regularly spaced electrically conducting pads (52) of width Wcp (520) in the direction of adjacent pads, adjacent pads being separated by an electrically insulating area of width Diacp (521), and the following relations between said distances are fulfilled:

Diacp>

2*T_cl, and Wcp>

T_il+T_cl.

25. A support according to claim 23 or 24, characterized in that

said cartridge (70) has an axis (71) of rotational symmetry, and said cartridge (70) is provided with a multitude of rectangular, essentially parallel, identically sized information carrying areas (610, 620, 630, 640, 650, 660) of height Hica (67) in the direction of a circumference (60) of said axis of symmetry, said information carrying areas being spaced with equal mutual distance Dica (68) along the periphery of the cartridge in the direction of a circumference (60) of said axis of symmetry, and said supporting means (75) comprise two rectangular, essentially parallel, identical electrically connecting supports (751, 752;

61, 62) of height Hctm (65) in the direction perpendicular to the axis (71) of symmetry of the cartridge (70), separated by an electrically insulating volume (755) of width Dctm (66) between the two electrically connecting supports (751, 752;

61, 62), and the following relations between said distances are fulfilled;

Hica<

Dctm<

2*Hica+Dica, and

Hctm<

Dica<

2*Hctm+Dctm.

26. A support according to claim 25, characterized in that

said information carrying areas (610, 620, 630, 640, 650, 660) of height Hica (67) each consist of electrically conducting (6102) and electrically insulating (6101) rectangular patches provided at said predefined positions on said cartridge according to a binary representation of said item of information, said patches having a width Wpda (69) abut each other, and the sum of the maximum thicknesses T_cl (540) and T_il (530) of said alternating layers of electrically conducting (54) and electrically insulating (53) materials, respectively, constituting said electrically connecting supports (751, 752;

61, 62), is less than the width Wpda (69) of said patches, thus fulfilling the following relation between said distances;

Wpda>

T_il+T_cl.

27. A support according to any one of claims 22-26, characterized in that

said alternating layers of an electrically conducting (54;

7511) material and an electrically insulating (53;

7512) material comprising said electrically connecting supports (61, 62;

751, 752) are made of elastic materials.

28. A support according to any one of claims 22-27, characterized in that

it is made of elastic materials.

30. An information carrier (30;

35;

41;

72) with an electronically readable item of information (350;

355;

415;

650;

725) for a medication cartridge (10;

40;

70), characterized in that

said carrier is a self-adhesive electrically conducting foil (36;

720) adapted for being positioned on said medication cartridge, and said item of information is redundantly provided at least once by applying electrically insulating areas (356, 367;

7251) to predefined positions on said foil.