New and Improved Implantable Sensors

            Big steps have been taken recently in the creation of implantable biosensors. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have created a passively-powered, wireless sensor that can give live force measurements in the body. The sensor is an inductor-capacitor sensor in which two flat, parallel coils are separated by a solid dielectric. This design allows the sensor to act as both an inductor and capacitor with the least amount of materials, and allows the spacing between the coils to fluctuate in order to control the resonant frequency and capacitance. Thus, the design generates an effective, smaller, and cheaper alternative for a biosensor than what has previously been on the market.

            Not only does this design provide a new and inexpensive way to create biosensors, but it also opens the doors to a wide variety of uses for the sensors in the future. The article mentions several possible uses such as in medical procedures, early detection of problems between implants and bones, and more accurate force readings in the musculoskeletal system. These uses are in addition to the already common functions of the sensors in reading temperature, torque, force, and pressure. However, the ultimate goal of theses sensors in the future would be fine-tuning them enough to enable them to detect the presence of certain molecules or chemicals within the body.

            I found this article interesting because of how simple the researchers were able to make the sensor yet have it be very effective in collecting real-time data. The fact that they were able to do all of this wirelessly and for under a dollar per sensor is quite impressive. Also, I was drawn to the idea of using this senor design in the future to measure the amount of a molecule or chemical in the body. Many of the diseases we have talked about in class deal with changes in the concentration of a particular biological molecule such as dopamine, so I am interested to see if a biosensor like this one will have the capability in the future to detect changes in concentration in order to better treat these diseases.

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/articles/bioengineering/implantable-sensors-make-medical-implants-smarter