Nanomedicine - Bionanoelectronics: Bioinquiring and Bioinspired Devices - page 133

batteries

lens

receiving
antenna

LEDs
diode

CMOS image
sensor

ASIC RF
transmitter

Fig. 4.8 The wireless endoscope

control circuit
chip/power coil

wireless
T/R

micro
motor

drug delivery
chip

remote wireless
station

Fig. 4.9 Wireless powering and monitoring drug release

inside the body. All these actions are accomplished via integration of a miniaturized
transmitter/receiver (T=R) module in the implant.
Such RF implants were already used in miniaturized drug delivery systems with
wireless power transfer and communications ( Smith et al. 2007 ) and in implantable
ocular drug delivery systems ( Tang et al. 2008 ), where a miniaturized pressure
sensor measures the intraocular pressure and delivers the drug when this pressure is
not normal.
Moreover, the single-chip implantable RFID (radio frequency identification)
system in a single-cell radio is presently under investigation ( Burke and Rutherglen
2010 ). In this case, a radio inside the cell interrogates, monitors, and, possibly,
changes the cell functions. This almost science-fictional idea depicted in Fig. 4.10
is based on the recent development of nanoradio and chip antennas.