02.08.23 -- Meeting The High-Reliability Requirements Of Medical Implantable Devices

Designing medical implantable devices for high reliability is crucial, but not straightforward. These devices are typically made up of many parts, including a variety of components such as multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCCs). As a result, for medical device designers there are a lot of decisions to make when selecting MLCCs.

While pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) serve different functions, there are a lot of similarities between them. Since both devices are extremely important to the lives of the patients that require them, it is essential that the small circuit boards inside these devices, which contain very tiny electronics such as capacitors, are built using high-reliability (Hi-Rel) electrical components.

Trimmer capacitors are variable components used to calibrate RF circuits during manufacturing or servicing. These components allow for variable tuning — think oscillator frequency values or rise and fall times. For sensitive applications such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), these components help to optimize performance where any instability in time or temperature could impact the image output.

Healthcare professionals and patients rely on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to examine soft tissues and organs in the body to detect a variety of issues in a noninvasive manner. MRI machines use a strong magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to produce cross-sectional images. Thus, the quality of the MRI depends on the uniformity of the magnetic field and the radio components inside it.