Implantable Electroncs

The stage for a new era of electronic medicine has been set!!!!!!!!!

Implantable electronic systems and devices have undergone a unique transformation. This has become an important biomedical tool for monitoring and measuring all types of physiological  responses. Advances in the area of MEMS and lab on chip biomedical systems have helped in the development of rapid diagnostics.

Today, implanted electronics have started to interface with the wearable and pervasive networks. The smart implantable electronics are passive and they broadcast the signals effectively. Implantable electronics like pacemakers are old hat, but these kinds of implants are limited by the fact that they must be encased to protect them from the body, and vice versa. But in the quest to make our bodies ever more bionic, researchers are striving to bring out implanted electronics to a new live.

Implantable electronics

Characteristics of Implanted Systems

1. Implantable electronic systems perform:

  • A telemetry function.
  • Collects Biological data.
  • Performs a teleactuation function.

2. All implanted systems consists of many fundamental components;

  • Indwelling module
  • External device.

Indwelling module: It resides within the host body.

External device: It is located outside the body.

3.  The external module transmits information to and from the internal module and deliver power to the indwelling component of the device.

4.  The indwelling module consists of electronic, biological, chemical or mechanical components. In sensing electronic implants, the indwelling sensors detect, collect and translate the desired biological and physiological parameters into electrical signals.

5.  These signals are then modulated by the interface electronics and transferred by means of an inductive coupling link to the external receiver component, where the data is recorded and analyzed.

6.  In stimulation implantable systems, the external component is used to wirelessly transmit commands to the indwelling component, where they are processed by the interface electronic circuitry to produce a range of electrical stimuli. The produced electrical currents are then delivered to tissues and nervous structure by means of electrodes.

7.  A closed loop system encompasses both the indwelling sensing and the stimulation components, and all information transfer and processing takes place within the body of the patient.

Some Unique Implantable Electronic Devices

Injectable radios

David Blaauw, a professor of electrical engineer and computer science at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has developed an injectable radio, one of the latest and unique implanted electronic devices.

The injectable radio consists of a small radio that sends a radio signal of about 50cm away.

Some of its requirements are:

  • A radio , and
  • A Processor.

Some of the key requirements that we must have in an injectable radio are;

  • Antenna design.

 The antenna design in the injectable radio can be of a terrestrial radio which is as big as a possible helping to send powerful signals as far as possible. Shi, one of the professors at the Michigan group codesigned the broadcast antenna design with a exterior receiving antenna.  These are matched in the way that allows the receiver to pick up a weak signal from inside of the body. 

  • Power source

 Power source is the second requirement.  The power required for the radio is only 15nW. But inorder to send a signal it consumes a large amount of power.

The group designed a battery. Inorder to reduce the current, a capacitor is attached to the battery. The energy developed is then given to the antenna. The battery can be recharged by a photovoltaic cell sensitive to the ambient infrared light passing through the body.

  • Encoding Method

The encoding method is used here since the bits are more spread out from the radio.

2. Smart Bandage that track and treat your wound

The researchers of MIT developed a new bandage incorporating electronics and also drugs. This bandage is really flexible and helps in providing a full movement while it is being applied to the knee or elbow.

The temperature related electronics helps in automatically releasing medicine to fight infections. The "smart wound dressing" is made of a rubbery hydrogel matrix that is 90 percent water, one designed specifically to replicate the qualities of human tissue. The gel creates a strong bond with materials such as titanium, aluminum, silicon, ceramic, gold, and other substances that are commonly used to build electronics.

smart bandage implantable electronics  

Titanium runs through the gel to make the bandage conductive which allows a number of electronic devices to be embedded. LED lights flash when the wound reaches at a certain temperature low. The reservoirs drill to the hydrogel and travel to the wound via channels cut in the matrix.

The upcoming step is that the doctor will alert through the remote process. A small hydrogel device is present which helps in serving the glucose sensor. Also, it helps in triggering the response from the immune system. 

Electroceuticals

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/we-can-now-wirelessly-power-tiny-electronic-devices-implanted-in-the-body

The researchers came up with the medical devices as small as a rice grain. This is applied to the electronic medical implants like pacemakers. Inside the human body, it aims a big power pack. The team provides a riff on the technology, to power electric smartphones and other devices.  Electricity passes through coil in a power source, creating an electromagnetic field.  A corresponding device in the setup provides or creates an electric smartphones.  In those setups, electricity passes through a coil in a power source, which creates an electromagnetic field.

The coil in the device collects the energy from the field. This results in inducing a current which powers the device or charges a battery. This type of wave known as near field can’t travel far or pass through the tissue.

This charging system helps to power electronics and other devices. It creates an electromagnetic field and the coil in the device takes the energy being generated and produces current.

Her 2-mm-by-3-mm electronic implant is powered through the body with a credit-card-sized source (charged independently) outside it. Her team found a unique method to manipulate the waves so that they propagate and pass through live tissue. The power source generates near-field electromagnetic waves of a specific pattern. As the pulses hit and interact with live tissue, they become a new type of wave, called “mid-field.

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