Advanced hybrid integrated low-power telemetric pressure monitoring system for biomedical applications

A new, highly miniaturized hybrid integrated solution for telemetric pressure measurement in biomedical applications is presented. The telemetrically powered ITES (Implantable Telemetric Endo-System) consists of a surface micro-machined capacitive type absolute pressure sensor fabricated in an eight-mask MOS-like process and two low-power ASICs for capacitance change read-out and telemetric data and energy transmission. An advanced flip-chip mounting and assembly technology is applied to overcome most of the drawbacks of hybrid integration and to fulfill space requirements of biomedical implants without monolithic sensor integration. This paper emphasizes system design considerations of the hybrid system such as its partitioning and the mounting and assembly technology. The pressure sensor design and its associated read-out is discussed in detail.