Basic Characteristics
Anticipating a ventilator shortage in Europe during COVID-19, my team adapted a 2018 veterinary ventilator for human use. Despite resource and supply challenges, we registered it with Anvisa for non-life-support use within five months, with plans to produce up to 3,000 units monthly at the crisis's peak.
Although large-scale production was not realized due to timing, we continued improving the ventilator, integrating features like cloud connectivity to transmit critical ventilator and patient data. As a bonus, I gained valuable experience in how large-scale companies organize their development, production, and quality systems.
System Characteristics
- Compliant with IEC 60601-1, 60601-1-2, 60601-1-6, 60601-1-9, and 60601-1-11.
- Hard real-time system controlling a 50W BLDC motor.
- Hard real-time system with 50W BLDC motor control and pressure/flow conversion.
- 7" touchscreen interface with system redundancy.
- Designed to handle critical part shortages.
- Built with three four-layer PCBs.
- Features a 4-cell, 100W LiPo battery charger and 100W boost converter.
Areas that I had specifically worked on or led
- Product Owner, leading embedded code development in C.
- Designed all three PCBs: main controller, BLDC controller, and power conditioner.
- Represented the company during certification testing and production of the trial batch.
- Contributed to software documentation, risk analysis, and IoT cloud integration.
- Developed production and testing equipment designs.
Gallery
One of the production test jigs
IEC 60601-1 vibration tests
IEC 60601-1-2 radiated emissions test