Biomedical devices have enabled a revolution in medicine. For instance, smart pills are being used to image the gastrointestinal tract, distributed sensors are being developed to map the function of the brain, and neural prostheses are being designed to help the visual, hearing, and motor impaired. As these devices become smaller, new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases will continue to emerge. To enable such devices, we are interested in developing fundamental advances for the miniaturization of medical devices by integrating concepts from physics, biology and medicine into the design of integrated circuits and systems.
Research Areas
- Integrated circuits for medical electronics
- Design of circuit‐, system‐ and integration‐level techniques for diagnosis and treatment of disease
- Analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits
- Integration of ICs with advanced materials, devices, and biological and chemical sensors and actuators
- Fully wireless systems
- Miniature medical devices
- Sensing and actuation of biological media
- Localization of devices inside the body
- Health monitoring
- Neural interfaces
- Bidirectional interfaces (recording and stimulation) for neuroscience, neuroprosthetics and brain-machine interfaces (BMI)
- On-chip computation
- Close-loop systems
Projects
- ATOMS: Addressable Transmitters Operated as Magnetic Spins
Localization of microscale devices in vivo using a novel microscale integrated circuit capable of mimicking the physical principles of nuclear magnetic resonance. ATOMS devices communicate via RF signals at magnetic-field dependent frequencies. Analogous
to the behavior of nuclear spins, these devices encode their location in space by shifting
their output frequency in proportion to the local magnetic field, and thus allow the use of external field gradients to precisely determine their location from their signal’s frequency. This technology is inherently robust to tissue properties, scalable to multiple devices, and suitable for the development of microscale devices to monitor and treat disease. In collaboration with Prof. Mikhail Shapiro.
- Minimally-Invasive Biological Interfaces
Study of techniques, approaches and opportunities for integrated circuits in biological interfaces using biophysical methods such as magnetic resonance, ultrasound and infrared light.
Study of novel circuit and systems techniques for sensing and actuation of biological function using ATOMS
- Wireless Implantable BioSensors
Design of high-sensitivity, high-dynamic range, and low-power micro-scale electrochemical sensors for measurement of different biomarkers such as glucose, proteins, enzymes and ions. In collaboration with Prof. Axel Scherer.
Most progressive vision loss occurs when the first layer of the retina (the photoreceptors) is damaged. Retinal prostheses aim to restore vision by bypassing the damaged photoreceptors and directly stimulating the remaining healthy neurons. Our approach uses highly scaled technologies to reduce area and power, and to support hundreds of channels for fully intraocular implants.
- Circuit Techniques for Biomedical Implants
Development of novel circuit techniques for the design of biomedical devices in highly-scaled technologies.