Tutorial: Interfacing Silicon with the Human Body: a Primer on Applications, Interface Circuits and Technologies for the Medical Market

This tutorial will provide a holistic overview of modern circuit techniques for interfacing to the human body: both sensing of key biomarkers as well as delivery of stimulation. A brief summary of constraints for safety and the biological environment will be provided to motivate general considerations for medical circuit techniques. Special emphasis will be put on power and noise issues as well for portable, ambulatory devices. A review of exemplary circuit blocks for sensing and design techniques such as dynamic offset compensation will then be discussed, with representative applications from cardiac sensing, brain-machine interfacing, electrochemical monitoring and cochlear prosthesis to drive home key points. A short review of future trends will close out the tutorial.