Safe active implants

In the "Active Implants" project, the use and a possible safety risk of implants in medical applications are examined. The focus is on two fundamental safety-relevant topics: Interaction between micropump and conveyed medium (e.g. drugs) and a reduction of the operating voltage. Intelligent implants have an enormous potential in medical applications with high added value for affected patients, making research on this topic highly relevant.

© Fraunhofer EMFT/ Bernd Müller
Steel micropump with piezoelectric multilayer drive

From drug dosing to artificial sphincters:Micropumps could be used as active implants for a wide variety of medical applications in the future. The various applications require very different specifications of the pump; however, what they all have in common are the extremely high safety requirements. In detail, the "Active Implants" project is focusing on the interaction between the pump and the pumped medium (e.g. drugs) in order to ensure long-term dosing stability without a failure of the micropump. Secondly, the scientists are investigating the possibility of reducing the operating voltage of the pump. Currently, it is several hundred volts, which is very high. To this end, they will test whether the actuator - currently a single-layer piezoceramic - can be replaced by a multilayer drive. By using this multilayer technology, the voltage required to operate the pump could be significantly reduced. As a result, safe isolation is easier to achieve.

The project is being carried out as part of the "Secure Intelligent Systems" (LZ SiS) performance center.

 

 

 

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Project: Autonomous implant for patient-friendly cancer treatment

Competence Field: Implantable micropumps

Service Offering: Micro dosing system design