There has been increasing interest in wireless, miniaturized implantable medical devices for in vivo and in situ physiological monitoring. Here, we present such an implant that uses a conventional ultrasound imager for wireless powering and data communication and acts as a probe for real-time temperature sensing, including the monitoring of body temperature and temperature changes resulting from therapeutic application of ultrasound. The sub–0.1-mm3, sub–1-nW device, referred to as a mote, achieves aggressive miniaturization through the monolithic integration of a custom low-power temperature sensor chip with a microscale piezoelectric transducer fabricated on top of the chip. The small displaced volume of these motes allows them to be implanted or injected using minimally invasive techniques with improved biocompatibility. We demonstrate their sensing functionality in vivo for an ultrasound neurostimulation procedure in mice. Our motes have the potential to be adapted to the distributed and localized sensing of other clinically relevant physiological parameters.

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Characterizing the human head as a propagation medium is vital for the design of both on-body and implanted antennas and radio-frequency sensors. The following problem has been addressed: find the best radio-frequency path through the brain for a given receiver position-on the top of the sinus cavity. Two parameters, transmitter position and radiating frequency, should be optimized simultaneously such that 1) the propagation path through the brain is the longest; and 2) the received power is maximized. To solve this problem, we have performed a systematic and comprehensive study of the electromagnetic fields excited in the head by small on-body magnetic dipoles (small coil antennas). An anatomically accurate high-fidelity head mesh has been generated from the Visible Human Project data. The base radiator was constructed of two orthogonal magnetic dipoles in quadrature, which enables us to create a directive beam into the head. We have found at least one optimum solution. This solution implies that a distinct RF channel may be established in the brain at a certain frequency and transmitter location.

Emergingnon-imaging ultrasound applications, such as ultrasonic wireless power delivery to implantable devices and ultrasound neuromodulation, require wearable form factors, millisecond-range pulse durations and focal spot diameters approaching 100 µm with electronic control of its three-dimensional location. None of these are compatible with typical handheld linear array ultrasound imaging probes. In this work, we present a 4 mm x 5 mm 2D ultrasound phased array transmitter with integrated piezoelectric ultrasound transducers on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits, featuring pixel-level pitch-matched transmit beamforming circuits which support arbitrary pulse duration. Our direct integration method enabled up to 10 MHz ultrasound arrays in a patch form-factor, leading to focal spot diameter of ~200 µm, while pixel pitchmatched beamforming allowed for precise threedimensional positioning of the ultrasound focal spot. Our device has the potential to provide a high-spatial resolution and wearable interface to both powering of highlyminiaturized implantable devices and ultrasound neuromodulation.