SSCTC Workshop
Co-Organizer
IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society
ziaie@ece.umn.edu
The IEEE Solid-State Circuits and Technology Committee (SSCTC) held its annual fall workshop 12-13 October 2000 in Arlington, VA with the subject, Biomedical Electronics. The workshop was organized by Babak Ziaie of the University of Minnesota and Jeff VonArx of the Guidant Corporation. There were 15 presentations during the day-and-a-half workshop. Speakers represented ten international universities and three corporations.
Presentations were interdisciplinary and included various aspects of biomedical electronics, including VLSI design and device technology for implantable microsystems, MEMS-based transducers and their interface electronics for biomedical applications, power sources and telemetry techniques, materials and packaging for implantable electronics, novel ultrasonic-based imaging techniques, and emerging technologies based on cultured neurons and nanotechnology.
W. Mokwa (Technical University of Aachen) described two im-plantable wireless microsystems that are under development in Europe: one for stimulating the retina in selected blind patients and the other for measuring intraocular pressure for the diagnosis and management of glaucoma. P. Troyk of the Illinois Institute of Technology discussed important low-power CMOS design techniques for implantable wireless microdevices in the context of the IIT Visual Cortex Prosthesis project. W. Liu of North Carolina State University presented the most recent results of the NCSU - Johns Hopkins University Retinal Implant project. Two presenters described their work in the area of telemetry and telemedicine: W. Ko of Case Western Reserve University described the use of telemetry in implant electronics, and J. Sanders of Global Telemedicine Group presented new and exciting opportunities in telemedicine. These included the use of wireless technology and the Internet to provide healthcare to inaccessible locations, such as remote rural areas and the NASA manned Mars mission.
The session on transducers and packaging featured M. Gingrich of the University of Michigan describing the University's research in micromachined recording and stimulating active probes for interface with the nervous system; B. Ziaie of the University of Minnesota, who presented a variety of micromachined transducers that have recently been developed for biomedical application; and J. VonArx of Guidant Corporation, who discussed some of the current MEMS-based techniques used in the hermetic micropackaging of im-plantable microsystems. The power source area featured presentations by E. Takeuchi, Wilson Greatbatch Corporation, describing the latest advances in lithium batteries for implantable electronics; J. Harb, Brigham Young University, discussing microscopic thin film batteries and their potential applications in biomedical microsystems; and P. Troyk of IIT, who presented new methods of transcutaneous power and data transfer. Biomedical imaging talks by M. O'Donnell, University of Michigan, and M. Fatemi of the Mayo Clinic concentrated on applications of ASIC in real-time imaging and novel techniques based on low-frequency acousto-elastic measurement of tissue properties. The emerging technologies session featured B. Wheeler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and C. James of Cornell University, who described their research in the area of cultured cell neural networks and nanobioelectronics (interfacing with biological systems at the cellular and molecular level).
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Babak Ziaie SSCTC Workshop Co-Organizer IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society |