Documents / Report
This Defense Intelligence Agency reference document, dated 31 March 2010 (DIA-08-1003-020), was one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) program. It surveys biosensors and BioMEMS, covering brain-implanted neuroelectrodes, drug-delivery pumps, implantable glucose sensors, brain-machine interfaces, retinal prostheses, microfluidic lab chips, NASA cell culture systems, and microcantilever sensors. It concludes that the field is expanding rapidly toward nanomechanical systems.
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UNCLASSIFIED/ ,~F&R: &FFHiIAL Wili &HLY Figure 27. Power Transfer by Magnetic Induction to an Implanted BioMEMS Retinal Prosthesis. This is the Boston Retinal Implant Project. (http://www.bostonretinalimplant.org/retinalapproach.php?fontsize=normal&hicontrast) MICROSCALE IN THERAPEUTIC NEUROSTIMULATION Some of the biggest excitement in medical neuroprosthetics has been in the notion that we can use micro-implantable devices rather than drugs to reduce or better control the effects of stroke, heart disease, epilepsy, and other disorders of the human condition. Bioelectrical stimulation has effects which are very specific on local tissues rather than indiscriminately affecting all tissues and so may offer fewer side effects of drugs. Such devices can be finely controlled in their effects and provide a greater flexibility in terms of treatment. Any implanted device has to be small in order to be minimally invasive, especially in the brain. Powering of implanted devices by batteries is only practical in a few biomedical situations. Also implants may need to communicate with the outside world wirelessly. Having wires penetrating the skin is uncomfortable and could lead to infection in the tissue. The notion of placing bioelectronic stimulation devices inside of the body for therapeutic reasons goes back to the early invention of the pacemaker. These kind of devices have internal batteries to support an electrical pulse generator that paces the rhythm of the heart. Because the amount of energy in each pulse is relatively small the power drain is low and the pacemaker batteries can last years. The difficulty is that they are bulky, must be eventually replaced on the order of seven years, and their placement is invasive. 30 UNCLASSIFIED/ ,'1"91t 91"1"1!111.L tl!IL 9HL I
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 45 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.