Smart Material Transducers and Applications to In Vivo Microsystems

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Microsystems with embedded sensors and actuators, or micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), have developed increased functionalities that could allow the treatment and monitoring of lesions inside the body in a minimally invasive manner. However, significant barriers to their use in biological environment include their ineffective interaction with three dimensional (3D) tissues caused by their planar forms, fragility associated with their design complexity, and biocompatibility issues, leading to severely hindered performance or malfunctions of the devices. MEMS-based implants are still too large in many cases including vascular applications. Moreover, wireless operation is essential for implantable microsystems. Addressing these challenges require breakthrough approaches. Toward bringing the medical potential of MEMS into reality, this research program will pursue novel paths that leverage non-traditional materials and processes to develop micro transducers and their packaged 3D microsystems in highly miniaturized, biocompatible, and robust/reliable forms. In particular, we will investigate how stimuli-responsive, smart materials, patterned in the micro/nano scales, could be an effective path to designing and constructing target in vivo transducers and devices. The benefit of this approach, brought by self-responsive designs, is that a device could be configured to simultaneously achieve 1) active/perceptive “smart” functionality enabled with embedded transducers, 2) ultimate miniaturization with extremely simplified design architectures, and 3) high robustness and reliability. The short-term objective of this research is to study and develop miniaturized transducers realized via the use of smart materials and structures for biomedical and wireless implementations. Furthermore, in order to verify the effectiveness and practicality of these novel transducers, we will apply them to study and prototype innovative in vivo microsystems including drug-delivery smart stents and 3D-viewing microendoscopes that will advance targeted therapy and diagnosis of localized disease such as cardiovascular disease and cancers. To this end, this research will also investigate novel micro/nanofabrication processes that will serve as a key enabling technology for their production. In the long term, we aim this research to offer ground-breaking technologies and products of intelligent microdevices that will shape the future of minimally invasive medicine and enable more effective healthcare delivery in Canada and worldwide. We also envision that the new findings and successful outcomes from this research will pioneer new applications in other areas beyond the particular scope in medical devices, while broadly contributing to further advances in microsystems, nanotechnology and applied physics.