Highly Reliable, Mixed-Signal Fusion and Low-Power IGLOO FPGAs Advance Medical Applications
According to analyst firm Gartner Dataquest in September 2008, the medical electronics market for semiconductors is estimated to be approximately $3.42 billion in 2008. By 2012, this number is expected to reach $4.48 billion with FPGAs making up more than $323 million of that total.
"Today, medical manufacturers are moving entire systems into a portable unit the size of your hand-or smaller," said Actel vice president of product marketing and business development, Rich Kapusta. "As a result, high levels of integration, low power, small footprint and high reliability are required to meet battery specifications, reduce design footprint, ensure reliable operation and minimize heat dissipation. Actel's mixed-signal Fusion and low- power IGLOO FPGAs offer these advantages, giving designers an alternative for the design of their next-generation medical applications."
Home-based Test and Monitoring Devices
Healthcare is shifting toward home-based applications. Often battery powered, home infusion pumps, respiratory therapy products, and portable blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure monitors require low-power operation, small form factor and high reliability. Offering unprecedented integration, Actel's single-chip, mixed-signal Fusion FPGAs can perform the system, power and thermal management of home-based test and monitoring devices -- from system power-down/up functions to data logging and temperature sensing.
Because of the need for low-power consumption and extended battery life in home-based devices, Actel's feature-rich 55W IGLOO FPGA, with its ultra low power Flash*Freeze mode, can offer designers up to 1700 times lower power consumption than competing programmable solutions. In an insulin pump, Actel's ultra low power IGLOO FPGAs can also absorb additional glue logic and multiple functions -- from human machine interface (HMI), display, storage and communication control to microcontroller functions -- into a single chip, thereby reducing bill of materials, board area, power consumption and cost.
Clinical Equipment
Many clinical applications, such as diagnostic lab equipment, drug delivery systems, automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) and hemodialysis machines, can benefit from the integration and capabilities that these mixed- signal FPGAs can offer. In a robotic surgery system, for example, Actel's mixed-signal Fusion FPGA can handle the system management and control functions and leverages its embedded flash for data logging or its analog quads for ADC, temperature and voltage sensing.
With varying densities, performance and features, Actel's low-power, flash-based FPGAs are also suitable for clinical equipment applications. Last year, Mindray Medical, China's leading developer and manufacturer of medical devices, selected Actel's flash-based ProASIC3 FPGAs for their portable patient monitoring systems due to the ultra low power, performance, reliability and enhanced security the FPGAs offered.
Imaging Applications
Though some medical imaging applications remain tethered to the wall, portable ultrasound imaging systems are impacted by the trend toward portability. As a result, these applications not only need extended battery life, but also require high-power computing and efficient memory access. Reiterating the growing emphasis on low power, reliability and small packaging for portable imaging applications, Actel's ultra low power IGLOO FPGA has been selected to handle the power and reset management functionality within next- generation portable imaging equipment, offering power savings and extending battery life.
About Actel
Actel is the leader in low-power and mixed-signal FPGAs, offering the most comprehensive portfolio of system and power management solutions. Power Matters. Learn more at http://www.actel.com.
The Actel, Actel Fusion, Actel IGLOO and Actel ProASIC3 names and logos are trademarks of Actel Corporation. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners.
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