Adaptive Thermal Management for Next-Generation Implantable Devices

随着电子器件尺寸的缩小和片上系统变得更加高效、智能、复杂和功能强大，植入式医疗设备正在成为所需的，并且在许多情况下，是一些最严重的药物难治性疾病的唯一可行的治疗方案。（即对药物治疗有抗性）类型的慢性疾病，如帕金森病、慢性疼痛、癫痫和糖尿病，在老龄化的工业社会中，这种流行正在迅速增加。然而，随着可植入医疗设备的功能和相关复杂性的增加，对植入物周围组织的潜在热损伤成为行业面临的新挑战，因为将生物医学植入物的周围组织暴露于高于安全极限的温度从长远来看可能导致不可逆的损伤，类似于长期发烧的有害影响。如本项目所提出的实时热管理，可以使未来新兴的植入式医疗设备在功效、功能和性能方面实现显著改善，同时在设备的使用寿命内为接受者提供额外的安全机制。 本研究项目旨在为下一代高性能植入式医疗设备建立自适应热管理的理论基础和应用框架，这些设备具有不断增长的功能和相关的复杂性。该项目包括五个主要研究部分：（1）建立计算效率高的模型，以捕获各种组织中的热动力学，用于植入式医疗器械的实时热管理;（2）研究热影响，并建立植入式医疗器械在不同操作条件下的热建模和管理指南;（3）开发自适应热管理框架，使高性能植入式医疗设备能够安全和智能地运行;（4）开发用于全面评估热管理算法的测试车辆;以及（5）通过在非常类似于人体及其血液灌注的环境中使用填充有循环组织模拟流体的体模进行体外实验来评估所开发的模型和热管理框架。该项目将大大提高对高性能植入式医疗设备热影响的理解，并使下一代植入式医疗设备能够智能和安全地运行，其功能和相关复杂性不断增加。此外，热管理框架可以适用于使用闭环可植入医疗设备系统的应用，以监测患者的疾病状态并调节治疗药物或刺激的递送，这是另一个强大的新兴技术领域，以及具有热问题的其他应用。该项目的教育组成部分包括一个为多年，多学科本科研究团队设计的模型，以吸引和留住学生，并通过战略管理团队和向个人分配任务来激发他们的研究兴趣，此外还为研究生提供研究机会和指导。

As the electronics shrink in size and system-on-chips become more efficient, smart, complex, and functionally capable, implantable medical devices are emerging as the desired, and in many cases, the only viable therapeutic solutions for some of the most serious drug refractory (i.e. resistant to treatment by medication) types of chronic illnesses, such as Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, epilepsy, and diabetes, which prevalence is rapidly increasing in the aging industrial societies. However, with increasing functionalities and associated complexities of implantable medical devices, potential thermal damage to tissues around the implants becomes a new challenge facing the industry since exposing the surrounding tissue of a biomedical implant to a temperature above the safe limits can cause irreversible damage in the long run, similar to the detrimental effects of a long lasting fever. Real-time thermal management, as proposed in this project, can enable the emerging implantable medical devices of the future to achieve significant improvement in efficacy, functionality, and performance, while providing an additional safety mechanism for the recipients in the lifetime of a device. This research project aims to establish the theoretical foundation and applied framework of adaptive thermal management for the next generation high-performance implantable medical devices with growing functionalities and associated complexities. This project consists of five main research components: (1) creating computationally efficient models to capture thermal dynamics in various types of tissues for real-time thermal management in implantable medical devices; (2) investigating the thermal impact, and establishing guidelines on thermal modeling and management for implantable medical devices under different operation conditions; (3) developing an adaptive thermal management framework that enables safe and smart operation of the high-performance implantable medical devices; (4) developing a test vehicle for comprehensive evaluation of the thermal management algorithms; and (5) evaluating the developed models and thermal management framework through in vitro experiments in an environment that closely resembles the human body and its blood perfusion using phantoms filled with circulating tissue-simulant fluids. This project will significantly advance the understanding of thermal impact of the high-performance implantable medical devices, and enable the smart and safe operation of the next-generation implantable medical devices with growing functionalities and associated complexities. In addition, the thermal management framework can be adapted to applications using closed-loop implantable medical device systems to monitor a patient's disease state and modulate the delivery of therapeutic drugs or stimuli, which is another strong emerging technical area, as well as other applications with thermal concerns. The educational components of this project comprise a model designed for a multiyear, multidisciplinary undergraduate research team to attract and retain students, and stimulate their research interests by strategically managing the team and assigning tasks to individuals, in addition to providing research opportunities and mentoring for graduate students.