Medical Applications of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) Technology - Biomaterials Science: An Integrated Clinical and Engineering Approach - page 77

FIGuRE 3.34
The i-STAT clinical diagnostic POC handheld unit.
Biosite's Triage ™ , Cepheid's Xpert ™ , MicroParts' GmbH Bilichek ™ , and the
Veridex CellSearch ™ [64].
MEMS Medical MicroProbes
A number of researchers have been developing microfabricated neural inter-
faces for a variety of medical applications [67]. These are usually miniaturized
probes that can be used to electrically sense or stimulate the surrounding tis-
sue. Within this category of devices are also miniaturized probes that can be
used to sense or deliver chemicals in the tissue. The goal has been to develop
probes that can be relatively permanent and have high fidelity and a large
bandwidth. Perhaps the first reported work on using MEMS to implement
microprobes was in 1970 [68]. Since that time, a large amount of progress has
been reported in the literature [69-71].
One application of these probes is for cortical implants. Direct stimula-
tion of the visual cortex of the brain was demonstrated in the late 1960s
using an array of surface electrodes [72]. The advantage of this approach
is that direct interfacing with the brain bypasses the peripheral sensory
organs, which may be damaged by injury or disease [73, 74]. Figure 3.35
illustrates one configuration for a cortical implant for visual prosthesis.
A key element in this design is the array of microprobes that is inserted