miniaturization Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Who is Acquandas? Its thin film manufacturing goes beyond Synchron

This nitinol thin film actuator made by Acquandas with a film thickness of 50 µm can pull 550 times its own weight. [Image courtesy of Acquandas]

Acquandas is a thin-film device manufacturer that’s now partially owned by brain-computer interface developer Synchron.

Rodrigo Lima de Miranda founded Acquandas in 2012 based on microsystem technology he developed for his doctoral thesis, where he was trying to develop a shape memory material made with thin-film deposition.

The Kiel, Germany-based contract manufacturer now uses the Nanolab cleanroom facilities at Kiel University and is growing its team of around 22 employees.

Beyond neurotech applications like Synchron’s Stentrode, the Acquandas technology has promising potential for cardiac ablation, renal denervation, opthamology, nerve stimulation, passive microimplants, microneedles, and smart actuators and springs, Lima de Miranda said …

Navigating thermally induced dynamics when developing miniaturized medical devices

Examples of mismatched materials of varying thermal dynamics, cured at various temperatures, causing warpage, cracking and potential breakage. The results are based on the forces that are present during matching and the assembly processes. [Photo courtesy of Promex]

Understanding and managing thermally induced dynamics during assembly and use is essential as devices become increasingly integrated and miniaturized.

By Dave Fromm, Promex

Some complexities of integrating miniaturized components, such as microelectronics, into increasingly small medical devices are obvious. Examples include the precision required to position and align components with the requisite accuracy, or the identification of critical-to-function dimensions and methods that control and check assembly steps.

A more hidden and often overlooked complexity is the thermally induced dynamics that occur when producing assemblies at micros…

How tiny solid-state batteries enable smaller implants that recharge faster

Ilika’s Stereax M300 solid-state battery on a finger for scale [Photo courtesy of Ilika]

With a solid electrolyte, high energy density and thin packaging, solid-state batteries are getting smaller and enabling devices to be implanted in more parts of the body.

Denis Pasero, Ilika

It has been more than six decades since Åke Senning implanted the first heart pacemaker in a patient. Even though today’s pacemakers have improved treatment considerably, the same principles apply: power is supplied from a battery to a pulse generator to maintain an adequate heart rate in the patient.

A similar principle can be applied to medical practices such as neuromodulation, which alters nerve activity through targeted electrical stimulus. Neuromodulation was originally developed to treat chronic pain through deep brain stimulation, but as the subject has become more widely understood, its use has spread from pain reli…