Cool Tools
Analysis software prevents heat problems in ultrasound machine and refines next-generation diagnostic technologies

With its advanced ergonomic and intelligent control, the new iU22 ultrasound system from Philips Medical Systems is turning heads in the medical community.

Unveiled earlier this year, the compact design offers many of the improvements that physicians had been seeking: more powerful computer architecture, real-time 4D imaging, voice-activated control and annotation, and one-button automated image optimization.

A Quest for Reliability Assembly and test system manufacturer combines pneumatics, precision motion control, and machine vision in a medical component vision inspection system

When it comes to components targeted for patient treatment, medical manufacturers can ill afford to take risks. That's why one medical device producer decided to scrap an inspection system that depended on sharp-eyed humans for a highly automated setup designed to stamp out all "false passes," says engineer John Hanna, president of Invotec, an assembly and test system manufacturer based near Dayton, OH.

Economical Solution Structured ASICs deliver better logic density, reduced power consumption--at lower cost--in medical electronic design

Designers of medical electronics products that are produced in low volume are constantly wrestling with the need to specify the latest application specific integrated circuits (ASICs). The usual alternative, a less-complex field programmable gate array (FPGA), can carry equally unreasonable prices that can amount to thousands of dollars per part. Now, however, ASIC manufacturers that cater to low-volume applications have developed a new class of logic device called a structured ASIC.

FES: From Lab to Market A Q&A with Hunter Peckham, Director, Cleveland FES Center