Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 12, 2025
16:38
Bridging the Bio-Electronic Interface with Biofabrication
Published on: June 6, 2012
16.8K
Versatile On-Chip Programming of Circuit Hardware for Wearable and Implantable Biomedical Microdevices
Ah-Hyoung Lee1, Jihun Lee1, Vincent Leung2
1School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI, 02912, USA.
Advanced Science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany)
|October 31, 2023
Summary
Researchers developed programmable microchips for biomedical devices. This hardware programmability accelerates development of miniaturized sensors and implants, enabling faster adoption in smart healthcare.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Microelectronic Systems
- Integrated Circuit Design
Background:
- Wearable and implantable microelectronic sensors are crucial for biomedical applications but face size and power constraints.
- Current system-on-chip (SoC) designs require extensive development cycles and often need additional programming pads.
- Miniaturization of sensors for applications like wireless electroencephalogram (EEG) and neural interfaces is a key challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a hardware programmable application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design methodology.
- To demonstrate a post-process editing technique for creating battery-less wireless microchips.
- To accelerate the development and exploration of SoC designs for biomedical applications.
Main Methods:
- Incorporated metal fuses and anti-fuses on the top metal layer of mixed-signal and radio frequency circuits for hardware programmability.
- Utilized post-foundry editing combining laser ablation and focused ion beam processing for chip customization.
- Designed sub-millimeter complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) microchips for wireless EEG sensors and implantable microstimulators.
Main Results:
- Successfully demonstrated hardware programmability in SoC designs without extra programming pads or power consumption.
- Achieved significant acceleration in the SoC chip development process by enabling rapid parameter exploration.
- Validated the technique with experimental results for wireless EEG sensors and neural interface microstimulators.
Conclusions:
- The proposed hardware programmable ASIC design and post-process editing technique overcome size and power limitations in microelectronic sensors.
- This approach expedites the development of miniaturized biomedical wearables and implants.
- The technology holds broad applicability for advancing smart healthcare through faster innovation in medical devices.
