Medical Applications

Semiconductor companies developing medical products frequently need non-standard I/Os and ESD protection. Think about pace makers, implanted hearing aids, sensors on patches. Semiconductors are used in new locations, are hard to replace and need low-power circuits

Custom Requirements

Chips used in medical applications require custom ESD protection solutions:

ICs are inserted in novel locations (on the body, inside the body)

Replacement of damaged parts is hard or impossible

Higher ESD robustness required for some cases

Sensors, actuators frequently require higher voltages

Wireless connections need low-cap ESD protection

Many applications need low-power electronics

Sofics IP for Medical Applications

Key Focus Areas

Wireless interfaces

Beyond standard voltage levels

Medical electronics frequently rely on wireless communication. The wireless interfaces need ESD clamps with low parasitic capacitance. Sofics clamps provide standard ESD robustness and do not require a resistance in the signal path.

Our IP was used for sensor interfaces, battery connections and more. We have delivered solutions for high voltage tolerance (5V and higher) thanks to a flexible but deterministic solution set

ESD with low capacitance

High voltage tolerant ESD

Battery powered applications

Harsh environments

Human implanted devices have limited access to power. Either they are batery powered or receive additional charges through inductive power through the skin.

Customers have integrated Sofics ESD in systems running for years on a single battery. The leakage of our ESD cells is 100x lower compared to conventional approach. Huge improvements can be made in stand-by, sleep, operational modes and during power-cycles. Sofics has solutions available for interfaces and rail clamps.

Medical devices need to be super reliable. For some replacing a failed device is hard. Moreover, these devices are used in new environments not well studied for ESD risks. Sofics IP was used for body-implanted semiconductors. Our ESD clamps are easily scaled to any ESD/EOS protection level.

Low leakage ESD

Clamps with high ESD robustness

Process technology covered

Foundries covered

Advanced CMOS (40nm to 22nm)
Mainstream CMOS (130nm to 65nm)
Mature CMOS (0.5um to 180nm)

TSMC

IC products from our costumers

Our customers have created amazing products. We supported different teams developping hearing aids, both implanted and non-implanted. We recently also delivered custom ESD clamps for a wearable device that has a much broader set of sensors for monitoring patients health real-time.