Wearable health monitoring for wellness and lifestyle

Autonomous sensor nodes can be used to create a body-area network that is worn on the body and monitors vital body parameters in an unobtrusive way during daily life.

Imec is developing the electronics and technologies for tomorrow’s unobtrusive, ambient sensor networks with focus on:

• Creating wearable and patient-friendly sensor systems using innovative packaging and integration technologies.
• Making the sensor systems autonomous by reducing power consumption of the active components and using energy harvesting so that batteries need not be replaced.

Integration technologies for healthcare applications

Advanced packaging solutions and integration technology developed in the microelectronics industry can enable a strong miniaturization of today’s medical devices, both wearable and implantable. In the future, they can bring completely new devices with additional features and on-board intelligence at cost-effective production.

• Small systems that are mechanically bendable or even stretchable: the techniques we use are, for example, chip-in wire technology, ultra-thin-chip embedding in flexible and/or stretchable packages, and 3D out-of-plane integration.
• Improve the biocompatibility of implants to guarantee long-term operation and to reduce adverse reactions.
• Make the devices autonomous by focusing on low power consumption and energy harvesting so that no batteries need to be replaced.
• Wireless communication of measured data to the outside world

Lifescience technologies: molecular detection and manipulation

Miniaturizing and integrating laboratory operations onto a single compact lab-on-chip device paves the way towards fast, easy-to-use and cost-effective diagnostic systems that can be used at the point of need, in the hospital, at the doctor’s office.

Imec develops technologies for sensitive and true multifunctional lab-on-chip systems:

• Surface chemistry
• Bioplasmonics- and biomagnetism-based nanobiosensors
• Nanofluidics
• Lab-on-chip systems

Lifescience technologies: in vivo and in vitro cellular interfaces

Integration of multi-modal (electrical, chemical, micro-fluidic, optical) sensors and actuator arrays based on micro- and nanoelectronics with biocompatible packaging and signal processing electronics leads to novel devices for use in fundamental R&D, pharmaceutical, biotech, and clinical environments.

Imec develops technologies for in-vitro and in-vivo cell-IC interfaces:

• High-resolution sensor-/actuator arrays (cell-on-chip)
• Miniaturized implants (in vivo pharmacology)
• Active brain implants (medical therapy)
• In-situ bio-signal processing