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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, dated 31 March 2010 and numbered DIA-08-1003-020, was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office under its Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. It surveys biosensors and biomedical microelectromechanical systems, covering brain-implanted micromachine neuroelectrodes, drug-delivery pumps, glucose sensors, neural interfaces, retinal prostheses, microfluidic lab chips, NASA cell-culture systems and microcantilever sensors. It concludes that the field is expanding rapidly, with nanomechanical systems expected to follow.
From the source: Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 3/31/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys biosensors and BioMEMS, a broad class of miniature biomedical devices that combine microscale engineering with sensing, fluid handling, stimulation, or drug-delivery functions. The report reviews major application areas including implantable blood-chemistry sensors, neural interfaces, neurostimulation, drug-delivery pumps, microfluidic systems, and emerging nanoscale extensions of the field, while emphasizing that miniaturization can improve sensitivity and enable functions that are difficult or impossible at larger scales. However, it also makes clear that practical development is constrained by biocompatibility, long-term stability, sensor drift, device degradation inside the body, and the high regulatory burden associated with implantable medical systems. The document presents BioMEMS as a rapidly growing and productive field whose future advances are likely to come through continued improvements in fabrication, materials, and reliability.
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concentration of glucose) and thus causes a change in one of these fundamental
quantities. Electrical sensors can be inherently small and so we have a combination
device with biology and electrical sensing in a small and compact form.
When compared to much larger bench top machines, microscale configurations of
sensors usually have a superior performance because they are less prone to various
interferences such as power-line noise and they have much shorter diffusion distances
for sensed molecules. Some physical quantities such as micro-degrees of temperature
change are much easier to measure over small distances.
BioMEMS Implantable Sensors
Biosensors placed inside the body, or in-vivo, measure biological parameters such as
blood pH, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and blood glucose. (Blood pH is a measure of the
acidity of the blood.) These parameters are the most important in medicine since these
are all independent blood chemistries that give a moment-to-moment insight into the
physiological state of a living being.
Since the early days of the space program NASA has been interested in ways of
noninvasively monitoring these blood pa rameters in astronauts for the instant
assessment of their physiological condition. Until recently, blood withdrawal was the
only accurate and reliable way to obtain such information. Indwelling sensors that use
needle penetrations are now available but still have trouble with accuracy and
longevity.
The military has also been interested in the assessment of the state of readiness of a
soldier which is reflected in his blood chemistry. An exhausted solider will show a highly
acidic blood pH (less than about 7.3). Remote electronic readout of biosensor
information of a soldier to a central command center is presently the stuff of science
fiction movies but reflects real desires of the military.
Figure 7 shows a photo of a pH sensor (which measures concentration of hydrogen
ions). It is designed as a needle for tissue insertion or placement at the end of a
catheter for introduction into the blood stream. The pointed tip is inserted into the
medium to be measured, and t he electrical signal and power supply are connected to
the device at the gold film contacts at the base.
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Official release, from the pursue 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.