Medical Design Briefs - August 2024 - 20

Sustainability/Sensors
it has the potential for a great sustainability impact as it reduces
waste as well as energy consumption from product creation.
A Driving Force in Sustainability
In recent years, the trend of home healthcare has become
increasingly popular. Thanks to advanced sensors, devices such
ranging from wearable fitness trackers to sophisticated home
monitoring systems can improve access to care and potentially
reduce the need for frequent visits to healthcare facilities.
How does this play into sustainability? Let's take for instance
the example of dialysis. Dialysis is a highly effective treatment
that helps the body remove fluid and waste products from the
blood when the kidneys cannot. Despite its effectiveness, dialysis
is demanding for patients, often necessitating treatment
three times per week, with each session lasting three to five
hours.
The transition to home dialysis enables individuals to undergo
treatment conveniently at home. From a sustainability perspective,
the benefits are twofold. Dialysis machines use a myriad
of sensors, including air bubble detection sensors, force
sensors, pressure sensors, and temperature sensors, which are
critical to operation and allow the dialysis machine to function
optimally within the home environment. Designing these sensors
using more eco-friendly materials, as mentioned above,
can directly impact a company's sustainability progress. But beyond
that, home dialysis cuts down on travel times to and from
doctor's visits, effectively reducing carbon emissions. It also reduces
the energy and resources required to operate dialysis
centers and the waste generated at these facilities.
An Eco-Friendly Mindset Makes All the Difference
A sustainability mindset drives behaviors and decisions.
Collaborating with employees, customers, and suppliers who
value sustainability is key to measurable change. Luckily, for
engineers currently entering school, sustainability is included
in many of today's educational curricula, so they are learning
the importance of sustainable design from the beginning.
Similarly, recent graduates are looking for companies that are
committed to and actively pursuing greener solutions. Effective
communication of sustainability progress is also crucial
with customers and suppliers. Demonstrating the impacts of
products and services can inspire others to reduce their carbon
footprints.
Truth be told, sustainability is no longer a choice, but a must
do. For example, TE has implemented several sustainability initiatives.
Since 2020, the company has reduced absolute Scope 1
and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions directly generated by
the company by 72 percent, and is committed to reducing indirect
Scope 3 emissions, resulting from its value chain, by 30
percent by 2032. In the years ahead, TE expects to see even
more sustainable sensor design as engineers work harder and
smarter to bring new products to market. Healthcare will see
even more treatments available in the home versus the hospital,
and sensor manufacturers must develop more sophisticated
technologies to integrate with complex systems for IoT applications.
With the right tools and the right mindset, even small
wins can lead to collective gains paving the way for a more sustainable
future.
This article was written by Marc Schillgalies, Senior Director,
R&D/Product Development Engineering, TE Sensor's Business,
Berwyn, PA. For more information, visit www.te.com.
Read TE Connectivity's
sustainability report.
Sensor Packaging: Critical MEMS Considerations
MEMS sensors offer precision and miniaturization.
Promex, Santa Clara, CA
S
ensor packaging, particularly for microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), is a critical aspect of modern electronics.
MEMS developers have demonstrated a variety of
innovative microsensors for almost every possible sensing modality
including temperature, pressure, inertial forces, chemical
species, magnetic fields, radiation, etc. While MEMS sensors
are revolutionizing various industries with their precision
and miniaturization, they can present unique product development
challenges and risks during design, development, and
manufacturing.
There are several critical decisions to be made that accommodate
the intricacies of MEMS packaging and ensure performance
of these sensor-driven devices.
Material Selection Considerations
* MEMS sensors are highly sensitive to mechanical stresses.
Careful attention must be paid to temperature ranges required
to package the MEMS device as many materials used
20
in packaging have large coefficient of thermal expansion
(CTE) mismatches with the materials constituting the MEMS
sensor. Stresses resulting from CTE mismatches can be very
large and scale with the magnitude of temperature changes
during processing. Problems arise when these factors aren't
considered - issues that can significantly impact sensor yield,
performance, and reliability. Therefore, it is critical to select
appropriate materials and processing temperatures to minimize
mechanical stresses induced by CTE mismatches. Best
practices suggest employing packaging materials with low
thermal expansion coefficients to prevent mechanical stresses
that could lead to sensor failure. It's important to select
materials carefully to ensure that components react appropriately
under stresses as they heat up and cool down during
packaging processing. The more that CTEs match between
adjoined materials, the more similarly the components will
expand and contract when exposed to varying thermal conditions,
either through processing or environmental factors.
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
Medical Design Briefs, August 2024
http://www.te.com https://www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
Medical Design Briefs - August 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Medical Design Briefs - August 2024
