One of pairs of an exciter and a sensor is selected in accordance with the detection
signal which is derived from an exciter waveform induced in an artery transmitted
therethrough. The pairs of exciters and sensors are arranged on a substrate in
various formations. A/D converters are provided to respective detection signals.
A frequency of the oscillation signal supplied to the exciter is controlled by
various oscillation signal generation circuits. Bandpass filtering for extracting
the exciter waveform, low-pass-filtering for extracting a natural blood pressure
waveform, phase difference detection processes are provided by a microprocessor,
wherein the bandpass filtering and low-pass-filtering processes may be replaced
with a bandpass filter and a low pass filter, and their outputs are selected by
a switching circuit and supplied to the microprocessor through one a/d converter.
The frequency of the oscillation signal is controlled to an optimum frequency by
detecting the detection signal and estimating the attenuation, dispersion, phase
shift with respect to different frequency and by determining one of the different
frequency in accordance with the estimation result. The waveform of the oscillation
signal is controlled to an optimum waveform similarly.