MEMS technology for biomedical applications

MEMS technology is enabling a wide variety of biomedical systems. This technology is now integrating microscale sensors, actuators, microfluidics, micro-optics, and structural elements with computation, communications, and controls for application to medicine for the improvement of human health. Derived from the microfabrication technology used to make integrated circuits, bioMEMS is expected to revolutionize the way medicine is practiced and delivered. This paper presents an introductory overview of three exciting new opportunity areas for bioMEMS in medicine. These are surgical microsystems (intelligent micro-invasive surgical tools), diagnostic microsystems (biochips and related micro-instrumentation), and therapeutic micro-systems (health care management systems). Some representative examples based on work carried out at the University of Minnesota (USA) are presented, including (1) MEMS in precision surgery-ophthalmology; (2) MEMS in biomolecular recognition; and (3) MEMS in autonomous therapy management systems-micro-pumps for drug delivery. Selected human clinical trials of the application of BioMEMS are presented.