Medical Electronics design: MEMS in Healthcare

by Vishal Goyal, Technical Marketing Manager, ST Microelectronics India

Introduction
Healthcare has emerged as one the biggest and fastest growing Industry around the World. The growing importance of Human life, increase in individual disposal income and awareness of preventative measures are driving the growth of this Industry. Increase in life expectancy and ageing of world population has made Healthcare as a very lucrative Industry.

MEMS has evolved as one of the most revolutionized Semiconductor components in personal Healthcare. The advent of MEMS is opening new ventures of application in Healthcare. This article will address some of the applications MEMS in medical electronics system design to serve the healthcare needs.

Semiconductor in Healthcare
Semiconductor is one of the Key drivers of innovations in Healthcare Industry. Semiconductor are used in core medical electronic Instruments such as CT scan, X-ray machines, ECG, Ultrasound, Blood pressure and Glucose monitoring etc. Semiconductor plays function such as sensing, signal conditioning, data conversion & processing, controlling the machines & robots etc. Semiconductor is equally important in medical infrastructure such as setting up of Internet, display, data processing, signal transmission etc. Semiconductor is also driving the growth of personal healthcare as it has enabled t...