Testing of pressure sensor in surgical cassette

1. A method of determining the accuracy of a pressure sensor in a surgical cassette, comprising the steps of:

providing a surgical cassette having a pressure sensor, said pressure sensor having a diaphragm;

providing a surgical console with a cassette receiving area;

disposing said cassette in said cassette receiving area;

displacing said diaphragm a pre-defined amount of displacement;

measuring a force exerted on said diaphragm by said displacing step; and

determining an accuracy of said pressure sensor by comparing said force measured in said measuring step to a pre-defined force for said pre-defined amount of displacement.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of providing information to a user of said surgical console when said force measured in said measuring step is not within a pre-defined tolerance of said pre-defined force.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of preventing a surgical procedure when said force measured in said measuring step is not within a predefined tolerance of said pre-defined force.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

said surgical console comprises a linear actuator having a plunger and a load cell operatively coupled to said plunger,

said displacing step comprises displacing said diaphragm with said plunger of said linear actuator; and

said measuring step comprises measuring said force exerted on said diaphragm by said plunger with said load cell.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein said cassette has an aspiration manifold, and said diaphragm is in fluid communication with said aspiration manifold.