BION microstimulators: a case study in the engineering of an electronic implantable medical device

The BION (Bionic Neuron) is a single channel implantable neurostimulator of unique design that can be delivered by injection. The development of the BION injectable neurostimulators exemplifies a challenging, but well posed medical design problem addressed with a successful strategy for prioritizing and resolving the biomedical and technological challenges. Though some performance requirements required post-evaluation revision, all fundamental goals were realized. A small number of significant design corrections occurred because the device requirements did not include the full scope of environmental demands. The design has spawned a number of variants optimized for diverse biomedical applications, and its clinical applications continue to evolve. The BION development history demonstrates design successes worth emulating and design pitfalls that may be avoidable for future medical device development teams. This paper serves as an introduction to the BION microstimulator technology and as an analysis of the design process used to develop the early clinical devices.