Communications-Protocol Testing: Balancing Technology, Planning, and Compliance
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2004 MICROPROCESSORS   Manufacturers must test communications interfaces thoroughly and carefully to avoid problems later. David A. Vogel and David S. Bernazzani Testing the increasing number of microprocessors that need to communicate reliably with each other within medical devices poses not one but three different testing challenges: technical, planning...
General-Purpose CPUs for Medical Image Processing
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2004 MEDICAL IMAGING   CPU flexibility, along with increasing performance and functional capability, makes general-purpose processors more than competitive with DSPs and ASICs for medical applications. Andrew Alleman Image reconstruction and processing is a fundamental function performed by medical imaging systems. While many aspects of this processing...
Motion Control System Selection: Going Beyond the Specs
  Originally Published MEM Spring 2004 MOTION CONTROL Motion Control System Selection: Going Beyond the Specs A manufacturer's component specifications may be determined under conditions not found in the real world of an application. Kyle Tomson Sidebar: Key Specification Questions to Be Answered Selecting motion system components to meet the demanding requirements of...
Safety: Putting the Power in Medical Electronics
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2003 POWER SUPPLIES   Specifying the right power supply for the application is critical to ensuring the safety of medical electronics. Peter Blyth Medical equipment—used to diagnose, treat, or monitor—is designed to come into contact with the patient. Patients may be unconscious or hooked up to several different pieces of equipment. Patients...
Improve Battery Performance with Proper Charging Methods
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2003 BATTERY TECHNOLOGY   Understanding different charging methods is key to extending the life of batteries destined for medical electronics. Isidor Buchmann To a large extent, the reliability and longevity of a battery hinges on the quality of the charger. In a price-competitive market, chargers are often given low priority, especially for consumer...
Ultra-Low-Power ASIC Enables New Hearing-Aid Technology
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2003 ADVANCED IC TECHNOLOGY   Return to Article: System-on-Chip Solutions for Next-Generation Medical Applications AMI Semiconductor (Pocatello, ID) has developed a new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for use in an extended-wear hearing device. The custom ASIC was developed in conjunction with InSound...
Rechargeable Batteries: An Old Technology for New Medical Electronics
  Originally Published MEM Fall 2003 BATTERIES   Despite its age, no suitable replacement has been found for sealed lead-acid battery technology for use in some medical devices. Isidor Buchmann The lead-acid battery is the oldest type of rechargeable battery. Invented by the French physicist Gaston Planté in 1859, lead-acid serves stationary or wheeled applications when weight...
Designing the Internet into Medical Instrumentation
  Originally Published MEM Spring 2003 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS   With the Internet in nearly every household, it's no wonder that it's finding its way into the development of home healthcare medical devices. Howard A. Raphael Medical monitoring at home is more common than ever. The demand for remote monitoring has driven the development of devices and systems to fill this need. Moreover, the...
PC/104: Embedded Technology for Medical Electronics Development
Originally Published MEM Fall 2002 Embedded Architecture PC/104: Embedded Technology for Medical Electronics Development PC/104 architecture provides compact design and durability to meet the requirements of medical device manufacturers. Mike Southworth From infant respirators to linear accelerators, a growing number of today's medical devices use PC/104 embedded modules as their...
Input Devices: Proper Selection Key to Long Life
  Originally Published MEM Spring 2002 KEYBOARDS   Key to an application's success are the right components and the right design—and, to ensure those things, a good supplier. Paul E. Knupke An environmentally sealed rigid metal dome keyboard with embedded LEDs. Both suppliers of input devices and original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that specify input devices have...
Achieving Simple, Precise Motion Control with Hybrid Step Motors
Originally Published MEM Fall 2001 MOTOR TECHNOLOGY Achieving Simple, Precise Motion Control with Hybrid Step Motors Hybrid steppers provide smooth operation in medical electronic equipment. Hasit Parikh Designers of medical equipment such as analyzers, diagnostic instrumentation, and laboratory automation systems often face the challenge of implementing...
Exploring the Flip Chip to Achieve High Reliability
Electronic Packaging Karl-Friedrich Becker, Andreas Ostmann, and Tom Adams Incorporating a flip chip into a product can be a viable option for medical electronics. Production processes must be developed that achieve short assembly time, low cost, and high reliability. Advanced chip packages offer advantages such as smaller size and shorter connection distances that cannot be gained from more-...
Designing Compact Medical Devices with Flex Circuitry
Flex Circuitry Bendable thin circuits provide a "flexible" solution to most demands for smaller electronic packages Sonny Dorren The vice president of engineering, attending the weekly managers meeting, is getting an earful from the marketing director. The company's brand-new product is too big, too slow, and too heavy. The engineers have to redesign the product, making it smaller,...
Using Solid-State Pressure Sensors to Optimize Respiratory-Device Applications
SENSORS Piezoresistive sensors provide real-time output signals for enhanced functionality and offer a variety of configurations for design flexibility. Memo Romero, Raúl Figueroa, and Chad Madden Pressure sensors are becoming increasingly central to medical equipment design. They play key roles, for example, in blood pressure monitoring systems, vital-signs monitoring equipment, and...
Using Thermoelectric Heat Pumps for Temperature Control of Medical Equipment
Medical Electronics Manufacturing Fall 1999 THERMAL MANAGEMENT Thermoelectric heat pumps offer flexibility when designing devices that need accurate and reliable thermal management. Robert Smythe Equipment engineers seeking to develop fast, accurate, and reliable medical and laboratory products are recognizing the importance of proper thermal management. As medical electronics evolve, the...
The Impact of International Standards on the Performance of Programmable Dc Power Supplies
Medical Electronics Manufacturing Magazine MEM Article Index Medical Electronics Manufacturing Fall 1998 Power Supplies Electronics manufacturers who comply with global safety requirements are developing new, more powerful types of high-performance power supplies. Mark Edmunds By complying with stringent international regulations, U.S. and Canadian electronics manufacturers are producing new...
Selecting Low-Pressure Sensors for Medical Electronics Applications
Given the vast array of technologies, value-added electronics, and packaging options available, component selection for pressure sensors can be a daunting task for medical designers. Couple those factors with the increasing pressure designers face to reduce component costs and board size, and the selection process becomes even more complex. While a variety of sensing technologies are certainly...
Deciding Whether and How to Use Mixed-Signal ASICs
One of the most significant challenges currently facing all segments of the medical industry today is the need to reduce costs by moving patients from hospital to ambulatory care as rapidly as possible. For designers and manufacturers, this need has meant an increased demand for portable medical devices that incorporate semiconductor components capable of meeting new technical and economic...
Selecting Proper Audio Components for Medical Electronics
A Medical Electronics Manufacturing Fall 1997 Feature AUDIO COMPONENTS   Mikulas Hlinka and Niv Amdur Making the right choice between transducers and buzzers is key to achieving just the right tone in medical devices. Avariety of sounds can be heard in a hospital, from verbal communication among doctors, nurses, and patients, to tears of friends and families of those who are sick. Other...
Implementing MEMS Technology in Today's Medical Electronics
A Medical Electronics Manufacturing Fall 1997 Feature MEMS Robert R. Swafford, Harold Joseph, and Vladimir Vaganov Improvements in the design, manufacture, and packaging of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are lowering the costs and increasing the capabilities of these tiny devices. MEMS have been an important and growing part of the medical industry since the 1980s. The microstructures are...
Passive Component Integration: An Array of Miniaturization Solutions
A Medical Electronics Manufacturing Fall 1996 Feature     Steve Makl By combining discrete passive components into multielement packages, designers can save more board space than by simply reducing the size of the components themselves. Miniaturization has been a key contributor to advances in electronic technology. Certainly, miniaturization has been made possible mostly through...