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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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Silver chloride
electrodes (0.8 mm)
encapsulation
Diode piezoelectric polymer
(0.9mm) (variable length 1-5 mm)
Figure 29. Illustration of the Internal Construction of the Ultrasound Powered Neurostimulator
Developed at ASU. Platinum ball electrodes at either end are the contacts to the tissue . (Towe et al.)
Th is device has been implanted in rats and shown effective in neurostimulation under a
wide variety of conditions. It appears suited to near-surface neurostimulations for relief
of pain, and in the potential treatment of a variety of nervous system disorders.
MEMS in Microfluidics
Another major area of application of BioMEMS is the control of flu ids on very small
scales and quantities. This capability is important in rapidly testing blood chemistry
from single drops of whole blood, in the laboratory for clinical chemistry, and in working
with very small amounts of DNA derived from cellular extracts.
Manufacturing small channels that
conduct fluids is relatively straight
forward using photolithography. A
computer generated optical mask is used
to expose patterns onto photoresists,
then a process of etching by plasma or
chemicals is used to carve out parts of
the substrate.
Substrates are often glass since it is
cheap, easily formed, and is a reasonably
inert and biocompatible surface. Figure 30
shows some of these kinds of
configurations. Glass is easily etched by
hydrofluoric acid, but also forms of
sandblasting with a fine grit have recently
been developed to cut holes in glass.
Finely carved capillaries in glass can allow
nanoliters or even picoliters of fluid to
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Figure 30. Microfluidics in Glass. Microfluidics In
glass take advantage of MEMS to produce microscale
devices that can do complex chemical analysis.
( http://www. i- micronews. com/interviews/M icronit
Microfluldics-d iscusses-product-diversificatio n. html)
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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.