KEEPING A CLOSE EYE ON CARDIAC FUNCTION

Measuring just a few square millimeters, IPDiA’s latest condensers are setting new records for miniaturization—not to mention stability and reliability—for a particularly demanding application, cardiac pacemakers. For a pacemaker to effectively regulate a patient’s heartbeat, the heart must receive an electrical signal at perfectly regular intervals. The condensers could also be used in the deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy used to treat Parkinson’s.

Technology

Leti helped IPDiA’s engineers miniaturize the condenser by replacing the dielectric materials originally used with a new material offering a constant k three times higher. However, because the new material could not withstand temperatures higher than 400°C (vs. 800°C for the original material), several steps in the process had to be overhauled.

The project milestones included ALD and engraving of the dielectric material and improvements to the barrier layers. The new material had to be deposited on 3D structures with a truly atypical form factor—a problem that Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, a Leti partner, helped resolve. The resulting condenser obtained a record-breaking capacity of 500 nF/mm².