ABSTRACT
Implantable microsystems have emerged as important and highly effective instruments for monitoring and manipulating internal activities within the body. With great advances in electronics and electrode technology over the past decades, it has become possible to implement complex implantable systems, which interface with the biological organisms to monitor internal body signals and manipulate the activity of body parts using electrical/chemical/optical stimulation.One of the success stories in the field of implantable biomedical devices is the cardiac pacemaker, which has been successfully implanted in a large population of patients.With emerging requirements of biomedical devices to interfacewith different body parts for therapeutic usage, pervasive implantable devices are rapidly becoming a reality. Figure 47.1a shows some example applications of bioimplantable devices. These devices are used to recognize and treat symptoms of various diseases like epilepsy, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, blindness, urinary incontinence, etc. Several applicationsofbiomedicaldevices arementioned in [1].Examplesof implantable medical devices produced commercially by Medtronic, a leading medical technology company, are presented in [2].
