We have seen an incredible transition in computing devices from vast compute servers that filled a whole room towards personal computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones. A similar revolution is happening in the medical diagnostic & therapeutic world. Recent years have seen a rapid rise of advanced (wearable) medical devices that bring high-quality medically-relevant diagnostics to an ever more convenient form factor at an even lower cost. More recently a shift is witnessed towards advanced implantable devices that can be implanted via minimally invasive procedures. Examples include ingestible, injectables, endoscopically implanted devices and subcutaneous implants. Imec is launching a major research effort into such advanced medical implant devices and we are looking for a good post-doctoral researcher to tackle a major hurdle in this field.
One of the biggest challenges to overcome in such highly miniaturized devices is the problem of power delivery. Most of the solutions today are battery-powered which has a number of severe limitations (toxicity, patient safety and size/volume). Hence there is a major interest to develop implants that can be wirelessly powered. In this area, inductively coupled devices are the most prevalent, but they rely on fairly large coils. RF-based wireless powering on the other hand is not efficient for deep implants due to the absorption of RF waves by human tissue. Ultra-sound however is a very interesting technique for medical implants and is already widely used for imaging. Ultra-sound is not absorbed as much by the human tissue, while ultrasound transducers can be made very small and even integrated into a chip.
In this master thesis, we will investigate an ultra-sound system for power delivery for extremely miniaturized deep implants. Based on acoustic simulations, we will first define the acoustic beam-forming technique and acoustic spec of the transducer to efficiently focus the energy to the implant. Then we will design the transducer for the optimal acoustic frequency. The work will be performed in collaboration with circuit designers working on the same topic.
Type of project: Thesis
Duration: 6-12 months
Required degree: Master of Engineering Technology, Master of Science, Master of Engineering Science
Required background: Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Mechanical Engineering, Electrotechnics/Electrical Engineering, Electromechanical engineering