• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.652-662
• /
• 2015

It is necessary to develop small, implantable bio-telemetry systems which can measure and transmit patients' bio-signals from internal body to external receiver. When measuring bio-signals, like electrical bio-signals, acoustic bio-signal measurement has also a big clinical usefulness. But, sound signal has larger frequency bandwidth than any other bio-signals. When considering these issues, a wireless telemetry system which has rapid data transmission rate proportional to wide frequency bandwidth is necessary to be developed. The bluetooth module is used to overcome the data rate limitation caused by the large frequency bandwidth. In this paper, a novel multimedia bluetooth biotelemetry system was developed which consists of transmitter module located in the body and receiver device located outside of the body. The transmitter consists of microphone, bluetooth, and wireless charging device. And the receiver consists of bluetooth and codec system. The sound inside the skin is captured by microphone and sent to receiver by bluetooth while charging. The wireless charging system constantly supplies the electric power to the system. To verify the performance of the developed system, an in vitro experiment has been performed. The results show that the proposed biotelemetry system has ability to acquire the sound signals under the skin.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
• /
• v.48 no.5
• /
• pp.74-80
• /
• 2011

Medical implant devices are one of the targets of the US's Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for tracking in case of a serious adverse event since they are directly connected to the lives of patients. The US law stipulates that the public health agency shall order implantable device makers to track their product down to the patient level if a serious adverse event has occurred or defects have been discovered; in reality, however, the agency can pass on the responsibility for tracking or recalling faulty devices to the manufacturers or use mass media. This article proposes an efficient tracking and recall management system and examines four main virtual scenarios based on such. This research seeks to suggest a system that enables FDA to perform accurate and prompt tracking and recall management for patients' enhanced safety.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.292-301
• /
• 2010

To restore visual sensation of blind patients, we have proposed a fully implantable retinal prosthesis comprising an three dimensionally (3D) stacked retinal chip for transforming optical signal to electrical signal, a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for stimulating retina cells, and coupling coils for power transmission. The 3D stacked retinal chip is consisted of several LSI chips such as photodetector, signal processing circuit, and stimulus current generator. They are vertically stacked and electrically connected using 3D integration technology. Our retinal prosthesis has a small size and lightweight with high resolution, therefore it could increase the patients` quality of life (QOL). For realizing the fully implantable retinal prosthesis, we developed a retinal prosthesis module comprising a retinal prosthesis chip and a flexible cable with stimulus electrode array for generating optimal stimulus current. In this study, we used a 2D retinal chip as a prototype retinal prosthesis chip. We fabricated the polymide-based flexible cable of $20{\mu}m$ thickness where 16 channels Pt stimulus electrode array was formed in the cable. Pt electrode has an impedance of $9.9k{\Omega}$ at 400Hz frequency. The retinal prosthesis chip was mounted on the flexible cable by an epoxy and electrically connected by Au wire. The retinal prosthesis chip was cappted by a silicone to pretect from corrosive environments in an eyeball. Then, the fabricated retinal prosthesis module was implanted into an eyeball of a rabbit. We successfully recorded electrically evoked potential (EEP) elicited from the rabbit brain by the current stimulation supplied from the implanted retinal prosthesis module. EEP amplitude was increased linearly with illumination intensity and irradiation time of incident light. The retinal prosthesis chip was well functioned after implanting into the eyeball of the rabbit.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.42-47
• /
• 2017

Background Skin erosion is a dire complication of implantable cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators. Classical treatments involve removal of the entire generator and lead systems, however, these may result in fatal complications. In this study, we present our experience with a simplified salvage technique for exposed implantable cardiac electronic devices (ICEDs) without removing the implanted device, in an attempt to reduce the risks and complication rates associated with this condition. Methods The records of 10 patients who experienced direct ICED exposure between January 2012 and December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. The following surgical procedure was performed in all patients: removal of skin erosion and capsule, creation of a new pocket at least 1.0-1.5 cm inferior to its original position, migration of the ICED to the new pocket, and insertion of closed-suction drainage. Patients with gross local sepsis or septicemia were excluded from this study. Results Seven patients had cardiac pacemakers and the other 3 had implantable cardiac defibrillators. The time from primary ICED placement to exposure ranged from 0.3 to 151 months (mean, 29 months. Postoperative follow-up in this series ranged from 8 to 31 months (mean follow-up, 22 months). Among the 10 patients, none presented with any signs of overt infection or cutaneous lesions, except 1 patient with hematoma on postoperative day 5. The hematoma was successfully treated by surgical removal and repositioning of the closed-suction drainage. Conclusions Based on our experience, salvage of exposed ICEDs is possible without removing the device in selected patients.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.139-144
• /
• 2005

An implantable microphone that can be utilized as part of a totally implantable hearing aid is designed and implemented. The proposed microphone is implanted in the center of the pinna, and designed to ensure the speech frequency range and the appropriate sensitivity. The characteristics of the proposed microphone are evaluated using a finite element analysis (FEA). The microphone is composed of a small electric condenser microphone, titanium case 6.2mm in diameter and 3mm high, and $10{\mu}m$ SUS316L vibrating membrane in contact with hypodermic tissue to maintain the sensitivity of the microphone. The microphone components are all made of biocompatible materials, then the assembled microphone is hermetically sealed using a polymer and ceramic. Experiments with the fabricated microphone confirm an operational bandwidth of up to 5kHz without any decline of sensitivity in 6mm of hypodermic tissue.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.45 no.1
• /
• pp.28-36
• /
• 2008

This paper discusses theimplementation of the low-voltage, low-power, third-order, 1-bit switched capacitor delta-sigma modulator of the implantable cardiac pacemaker. The distributed, feed-forward structure and bulk-driven OTA were used in order to achieve an efficient operation under a supply voltage of 1V or lower. The designed modulator has a dynamic range of 49dB at 0.9V supply voltage and consumes 816nW of power. Such a significant reduction in power consumption allows diverse applications, not only in pacemakers, but also in implantable biomedical devices that operate with limited battery power. The core chip size of the modulator is $1000{\mu}m*500{\mu}m$ manufactured, with the $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS standard process.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.322-330
• /
• 2005

A new type of transducer, piezoelectric floating mass transducer (PFMT) which has advantages of piezoelectric and electromagnetic transducer has been proposed and implemented for the implantable middle ear hearing devices. By the uneven bonding of piezoelectric material to the inner bottom of transducer case, the PFMT can vibrate back-and-forth along the longitudinal axis of the transducer even though the piezoelectric material within the cylindrical case produces only the bilateral expansion and contraction according to the applied electrical signal. To improve efficiency of the PFMT, the multi-layered piezoelectric material has been adapted. The small number of components in the PFMT enables the simple manufacturing and the easy implanting into the middle ear. In order to examine the characteristics of vibration, mechanical modeling and finite element analyses of the proposed transducer have been performed. From the result of theoretical analyses and the measured data from the experiment, it is verified that the implemented PFMT can be used in implantable middle ear hearing devices.

• ETRI Journal
• /
• v.37 no.2
• /
• pp.204-211
• /
• 2015

For this study, we designed an implantable rectangular spiral antenna for medical biotelemetry in the Medical Implant Communications Service band (402 MHz to 405 MHz). The designed antenna has a U-shaped loop for impedance matching. The antenna impedance is easily adjusted by controlling the shape and length of the U-shaped loop. Significant design parameters were studied to understand their effects on the antenna performance. To verify the potential of the antenna for the desired applications, we fabricated a prototype and measured its performance in terms of the resonant characteristics and gain radiation patterns of the antenna. In the testing phase, the prototype antenna was embedded in human skin tissue-emulating gel, which was developed to simulate a real operation environment. The measured resonant characteristics show good agreement with the simulations, and the -10 dB frequency band is within the range of 398 MHz to 420 MHz. The antenna exhibits a maximum gain of -22.26 dBi and an antenna efficiency of 0.215%.

• Archives of Plastic Surgery
• /
• v.46 no.6
• /
• pp.594-598
• /
• 2019

Overall complication rates of 9.1% have been reported following implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) placement. Brachial plexus injury is infrequently reported in the literature. We describe a 26-year-old female experiencing left arm nerve pain, a positive Tinel's sign, numbness in the median nerve distribution of the hand and biceps muscle weakness following revision ICD via subclavian vein approach. Nerve conduction studies identified severe partial left brachial plexopathy, which remained incompletely resolved with conservative management. Surgical exploration revealed lateral cord impingement by the ICD generator and a loop of the ICD lead, along with fibrosis, necessitating surgical neurolysis and ICD generator repositioning. As increasing numbers of patients undergo cardiac device implantation, it is incumbent on practitioners to be aware of potential increases in the prevalence of this complication.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
• /
• v.46 no.1
• /
• pp.92-97
• /
• 2009

Low power consumption is crucial for medical implantable devices. A low-power 4th-order band-pass Gm-C filter with distributed gain stage for the sensing stage of the implantable cardiac pacemaker is proposed. For the implementation of large-time constants, a floating-gate operational transconductance amplifier with current division is employed. Experimental results for the filter have shown a SFDR of 50 dB. The power consumption is below $1.8{\mu}W$, the power supply is 1.5 V, and the core area is $2.4\;mm{\times}1.3\;mm$. The filter was fabricated in a 1-poly 4-metal $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process.