Optimizing Electronics for Medical Applications

Two years ago, in Medical Design Briefs, Derek Hunt offered some insight into the benefits of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology in the miniaturization of medical devices. CMOS has been around for decades and aside from the size benefits which will be discussed shortly, the technology also brings significant cost savings and performance improvements to the medical world. Readers who are currently engaged in the design of medical electronics already recognize this. It’s actually difficult to design such products today without incorporating CMOS devices. And because medical devices often contain many analog components, there remains one critical decision point designers must address and that is whether to design with standard off-the-shelf standard analog products or engage with a semiconductor company to produce a custom analog chip for the application.