Student: Svein Berg (sveib)
Introduction
We have recently started a project with the company LifeCare. The aim of the project is to develop a glucose sensor that is implantable and allows continuous monitoring of glucose levels in the blood of diabetes patients. The continuous monitoring allows a finer administration of insulin and avoids big swings in the glucose levels. The later have severe consequences on the patients health in the long run. By avoiding these swings the life expectancy of the patients can be increased by several years.
A permanent implant cannot require cables through the skin. Thus, the communication and the supply with energy has to be wireless. We intend to solve this with an inductive link, i.e. two coils, one on the skin and the other just under the skin. This solution has been used already very successfully for example in cochlear implants. The coils allow an AC signal to be transfered through the skin. One component of the inside has to transform this AC signal into a stable, temperature independent DC power-supply for the implant with as big an efficiency as possible.
The Project
The aim of this project is to propose and test an efficient system to turn the AC input signal into a stable, temperature independent DC power supply. The solution will have to deal with the variable AC signal that is also used to transmit data. The system will probabely contain components such as high voltage protection diodes, a rectifyer, a stabilizing capacitor and a voltage regulator. Some of these components may not need to be on an ASIC and may even be standard components. The space requirements and heat tolerance of the implant, however, will limit the use of such discrete components. To assess this, will be part of the task.
Required Skills
Practical skills in evaluating and assessing different possible configurations of solutions. Electronics with discrete components and microelectronics in integrated circuits, layout tools, schematics and circuit simulation.
Program
Informatikk