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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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Figure 26. An Illustration of the Retinal Neuroprosthesis Created by the Boston Implant Project
(http://www. bostonretina Ii mp la nt.erg/implant. php?fontsize= norma l&h i contrast)
The signal processing circuits are on the lelt while the power induction coil is the
circular structure. The MEMS stimulating microelectrode array projects out towards the
bottom of the picture.
The minimal size of the implant means batteries are impractical and forms of wireless
power by magnetic induction, ultrasound, or solar energy are required. In addition the
tissue surrounding the implant is usually very sensitive to temperature rise so the
implant must have very low power consumption to ensure it will not harm the tissue.
Power by magnetic induction is widely used because it allows relatively larger amounts
of power transfer compared to ultrasound and solar energy techniques. Parallel coils of
wire, one inside the body and one outside, exchange energy by magnetic field coupling
in accordance with Faraday's law of induction. Figure 27 is an artist's conception of the
magnetic induction method of power transmission. There are two coaxial coils that
couple magnetically, one on the inside of the body and one external. The energy of the
magnetic field is shown as the curved lines passing through the tissue.
A disadvantage of this method is that the coils are relatively large compared to the size
of micro-implants and so tends to define the minimum size. The coil size depends on
the amount of energy that needs to be ind uced and on the implant depth with larger
diameter coils being required.
This type of technology is giving way to improved methods of energy transmission into
tissue for implant power by using microscale devices that, although not strictly MEMS,
share many of their characteristics.
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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.