Texas Instruments is well known as a supplier of semiconductors for use in products ranging from audio gear to automotives, consumer electronics to industrial motors. Now our expertise in innovative analog and embedded processing technologies is also making its way into health care. TI semiconductors are helping improve the way people see, monitor their health and minimize pain. 

Partnerships with startup companies have already produced promising results. TI and Second Sight Inc. of Sylmar, California, are collaborating to mitigate blindness. Their tool: an implantable visual prosthetic that creates a semblance of genuine vision.

Here's how it works: a camera mounted on the patient's glasses captures an image and sends data to a video processor. From there, the data is converted into an electrical signal. That signal is passed to a transmitter, which conveys the signal wirelessly to an implanted receiver. Finally, the data travels through a tiny cable to an electrode array attached to the patient's retina. Retinal responses move through the optic nerve to the brain, stimulating the patient with patterns of light and dark spots. The patients learn to interpret these spots as real-world shapes.

Blind patients who tested the system have reported the ability to "see" moving shadows. Next, engineers will replace a relatively large receiver implanted behind the ear with a miniature one positioned around the eye.

As in other markets such as computing and telecommunications, semiconductor technology is enabling the medical device industry's push into miniaturization. For example, TI technology is helping downsize cart-size ultrasound machines to approximate the dimensions of a laptop computer. These downsizes will make it easier for expectant mothers to view their babies at rural medical facilities and for emergency caretakers to treat patients at the point of care or at an accident scene, a nature catastrophe or even in the battlefield. Pencil-sized blood glucose monitors now make it possible for diabetics to check their blood sugar anywhere as well.

Along similar lines, TI has helped advance the art of electrical pulse therapy to manage pain. Advanced Neuromodulation Systems worked with TI engineers to produce a low-power microprocessor for the Eon device. The Eon is an implantable neurostimulation system that generates mild electrical pulses in the nervous system to mask pain messages.

Market analysts are predicting double-digit growth numbers for semiconductors that are used in medical devices. TI will continue to expand its engagements in this important field to help medical device companies revolutionize health care in the 21st century and beyond.