Implantable medical devices have been implemented to provide treatment and to assess in vivo physiological information in humans as well as animal models for medical diagnosis and prognosis, therapeutic applications and biological science studies. The advances of micro/nanotechnology dovetailed with novel biomaterials have further enhanced biocompatibility, sensitivity, longevity and reliability in newly-emerged low-cost and compact devices. Close-loop systems with both sensing and treatment functions have also been developed to provide point-of-care and personalized medicine. Nevertheless, one of the remaining challenges is whether power can be supplied sufficiently and continuously for the operation of the entire system. This issue is becoming more and more critical to the increasing need of power for wireless communication in implanted devices towards the future healthcare infrastructure, namely mobile health (m-Health). In this review paper, methodologies to transfer and harvest energy in implantable medical devices are introduced and discussed to highlight the uses and significances of various potential power sources.

Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) are often used in transceiver modules, especially for telecommunication and radar applications. In this paper, we present recent progress in the development on a MEMS-on-LTCC process. We focus on the Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) substrate issues and we present a successful solution for overcoming the substrate challenges through surface pre-treatment using a chemical mechanical surface polishing (CMP) process which allows us to reach the required smoothness for the fabrication of MEMS devices. We discuss various process parameters such as slurry type, rotating pad and rotation speed, and show their impact on the final surface finish. With an optimized process, the maximum roughness was decreased from more than 10μm to less than 0.5 μm over a 640 × 640 μm² LTCC sample. Also, we present the various MEMS process steps starting with the deposition and patterning of various layers to a prototype switch highlighting the validated steps and the challenges encountered. A brief discussion of the perspectives for the integration of MEMS and LTCC technologies is also presented.

Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) based microfluidic sensors have been developed for biomedical and environmental sensing systems. This paper introduces a microfluidic chamber based on impedance spectroscopy measurements using LTCC technology for wireless Lab-On-A-Chip (LOC) applications. To overcome the channel sagging during the fabrication process, we used sacrificial carbon tapes as solid inserts, thus guiding the LTCC to follow their shape upon lamination and then formed micro-channels. The measurement chamber was a parallel-plate capacitive structure with 85 μm gap. This platform requires a small fluid sample of less than 4 μL. The sensor formed by the microfluidic channel and capacitance structure was characterized using different dielectric materials such as air, water and acetone. We hereby present the capability of LTCC-based systems in fluid identification by detecting their electrical permittivity using capacitance measurement.