Integrated Biomedical Systems
- Biomedical is the application of the natural sciences, especially the biological and physiological sciences, to clinical medicine. It is all that studies the technological and engineering applications of living and biological systems. Right from the lowest unit ‘Cell’ to the most complex nervous system that processes and controls the information, all the organs of living beings function with a perfect coordination so that they could digest, reproduce, grow, respond to various stimuli. Research in the field of medical, biomedical engineering and technology are further enhancing our understanding about this discipline and unfolding variety of opportunities for the experts to design innovative technical intervention that would offer easy and automated solutions to various biomedical problems.
- [Stanford Integrated Biomedical Systems]: "Our research focuses on providing theoretical foundations and engineering platforms for realizing electronics that seamlessly integrate with the body. Such systems will allow precise recording or modulation of physiological activity, for advancing basic scientific discovery and for restoring or augmenting biological functions for clinical applications. To build these integrated biomedical systems, our research program emphasizes a vertical integration of diverse fields ranging from physics, wireless technologies, low-power integrated circuits, and biological interfaces."
- [Biomedical Systems - UC-Berkeley Wireless Research Center]: "Advancements in systems and circuits miniaturization and energy reduction allow for an ever-tighter interfacing between the biological and the cyber world. It is not too far-fetched to imagine integrated sensor (actuator) nodes, including data acquisition and processing circuitry as well as data transmission, that approach the size of a biological cell. This opens the door for a broad range of exciting new applications in the biomedical space. Examples include advanced in-situ and in-vivo monitoring and diagnostics, as well as stimulation or actuation. Mobility, longevity and reliability concerns demand that these nodes communicate wirelessly and operate in energy self-contained mode for a long period of time (> 10 years in some cases). The Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), with its long-established expertise in energy-efficient circuit design for processing and communication, as well as in energy-harvesting technologies, is therefore at the forefront of the development of the most advanced miniature biomedical systems. An example is its work in brain-machine interfaces (the ultimate unPad technology), in collaboration with the UCB-UCSF Center for Neural Engineering and Prosthetics (CNEP).
Wireless technologies, besides offering the capability of data communication and power delivery, also play an increasing role in medical imaging applications using the penetrating capabilities of high-frequency electromagnetic waveforms. BWRC has been a pioneer in the domain of millimeter-wave and TeraHertz transceivers, implemented in standard CMOS technologies. Advancing the state-of-the-art in CMOS electromagnetic imaging is the target of a range of projects at the Center, essential to the success of the tight integration of antennas, passives and active circuitry into single CMOS devices."
[More to come ...]