Medical Sensor Applications of Tunnel Magnetoresistance (TMR)

描述（由申请人提供）：Koronis Biomedical Technologies （KBT）提议开发一种用于医疗设备的新型隧道磁电阻（TMR）传感器。TMR技术改进了磁传感器的尺寸、灵敏度和噪声抑制，为显著提高目前依赖于传统磁传感器的各种医疗设备的性能提供了机会。这些产品包括起搏器、植入式除颤器、神经刺激器和药物泵。进一步的应用包括探针定位，音频传输和遥测。将TMR传感器集成到医疗设备中，将产生更小、更强大、更高效的系统。TMR在磁记录行业中的采用证明了这一点，通过TMR读头的开发，磁性数据存储密度增加了三个数量级。KBT将设计、制造和测试一种优化的TMR传感器，将这项技术用于医疗应用。将开发和测试一种助听器远端油替代试验台应用，以证明TMR传感器接收磁性音频信号的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Koronis Biomedical Technologies (KBT) proposes to develop a novel tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensor for use in medical devices. TMR technology delivers improvements in magnetic sensor size, sensitivity, and noise rejection that represent an opportunity to significantly enhance the performance of a variety of medical devices that currently rely on traditional magnetic sensors. These products include pacemakers, implantable defibrillators, neurostimulators, and drug pumps. Further applications include probe localization, audio transmission, and telemetry. Integrating TMR sensors into medical devices will result in smaller, more powerful, and more efficient systems. This is evidenced by TMR's adoption in the magnetic recording industry, which has increased magnetic data storage densities by three orders of magnitude through the development of TMR read heads. KBT will design, fabricate, and test an optimized TMR sensor, adapting this technology for use in medical applications. A hearing aid telecoil replacement testbed application that will demonstrate the ability of TMR sensors to receive magnetic audio signals will be developed and tested. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The development of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) technology has had a transformative impact on the magnetic recording industry by dramatically increasing storage density using smaller, more sensitive, and more noise resistant magnetic sensors. This technology can be applied to similarly improve medical devices, including hearing aid telecoils. The adaption of TMR sensors for these devices will place sensors with superior performance in very small and previously inaccessible locations.