Motion Control for Medical Devices
Today, motion control has moved well beyond its traditional uses in manufacturing. Medical devices, automotive, robotics and personal tools like smartphones and tablets have all benefited from motion control subsystems with lower cost, lower power, and smaller footprints and packaging due to better miniaturization. The key to harnessing the complexity of the electronics and embedded [...]
Liquid Biopsy Platform – A Challenging Design
We have completed a challenging project that started with a referral from a partner. The liquid biopsy platform project was the design of a complex medical instrument and it required a combination of skills that we are known for: analog circuitry, FPGA, microprocessors, and firmware. The instrument is used for non-invasive liquid biopsies and requires the [...]
Voler Helps Out With Legacy Test Equipment
Voler was recently approached by a large medical device company that relied on test equipment that had been designed several years earlier by a firm that was no longer available. They ask Voler for help because for the last two years the equipment would periodically fail calibration and was providing inconsistent results. They had done [...]
How to Avoid Big Errors Using Accelerometers
Accelerometers can be used to measure not only acceleration but also vibration. Historically, accelerometers have seen widespread use in manufacturing production lines and automotive electronics. They are now widely used in portable electronic devices such as cell phones, video game controllers, and cameras. Medical devices increasingly incorporate them to add capabilities to measure motion such as the rate and depth of chest compression.
Signal Conditioning Demystified
What Is Signal Conditioning? Signal conditioning is the part of a data acquisition system that interfaces to a sensor. Most sensors require some type of accommodation to turn their input into a linear voltage that can be measured by a data acquisition computer. Often, the signal is too "small" and must be changed to a [...]
Prototype Catheter Measures Heart Muscle
Voler developed a circuit to measure the impedance of tissue inside the heart to determine which part of the tissue is infarcted (dead) for use in a prototype cardiac catheter. We worked with a medical device start-up to implement an innovative method to reliably detect the minute differences between healthy and infarcted heart tissue.
How To Reduce Noise In Test Systems
Noise is unwanted interference that affects the signal and may distort the information. Noise comes from a variety of sources. Some comes from inside a circuit or device, and some from outside. What creates this noise? Motors generate noise and fluorescent lighting generates noise. Noise gets into a circuit from outside through two fundamentally different ways:
Using ZigBee to Integrate Handheld Tester
Voler was approached by a service provider with a need for handheld HVAC testers that service field representatives could use when they go to residences and businesses to perform an energy audit for the owners' heating and air-conditioning systems.
Voler worked with the IT manager and a lead user to develop a written specification to meet their needs. Together we developed a proposal for a testing system with three remote units that are wirelessly connected to a master that plugs into the USB port on a PC.
IC Tester product design, FPGA design, analog design
"excellent job" "on time and below budget"
