Doctor Cary Kuliasha is a postdoctoral research associate working with Doctor Jack Judy's research laboratory at the University of Florida. His team focuses on the potential effects the body's environment could have on biomedical devices over time through accelerated aging. Kuliasha's work currently focuses on how Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology could be applied to bioelectronics since it is currently used in computer technology.

Top Three Takeaways:

1. The point of the project is to mimic a chronic inflammatory environment with oxygen species that could potentially affect an implantable device.
2. The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and the silicon packaging experienced failure relatively quickly in the aging environment.
3. There is a correlation between the RA environment and how the body affects bioelectronic devices; the strength of the correlation is unknown.

Show Notes:

[00:00] Ladan introduces the episode from a recent neural engineering conference he attended in March of 2019.

[1:10] Doctor Cary Kuliasha introduces himself from the University of Florida where he works with Doctor Jack Judy; he presents his poster as "In-Vitro Accelerated Aging Assessment of Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and Implantable Packaging for Bioelectronic Interfaces".

[1:50] His project mimics the physiological environment for a bioelectronic device in the body over time.

[2:30] The point of the project is to mimic a chronic inflammatory environment with oxygen species that could potentially affect an implantable device.

[3:20] The poster focuses on the backend packaging that implantable devices need; Kuliasha explains how this topic is often neglected.

[3:55] The poster focuses on the connector technology that the backend packaging needs to connect to the neural interface of implantable devices.

[4:30] Kuliasha goes into detail concerning the new Microflex technology that uses a golden ribbon.

[5:15] Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology commonly used in connecting different kinds of computers together is now being studied in the body for biomedical devices.

[6:15] The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive technology was encapsulated in silicon and then put into an environment similar to the body at 77 degrees Celsius to see how it changed over time.

[6:45] The Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive and the silicon packaging experienced failure relatively quickly in the aging environment.

[7:45] Kuliasha explains how failure leads to improvement in the field of engineering.

[8:30] There is a correlation between the RA environment and how the body affects bioelectronic devices; the strength of the correlation is unknown.

[9:00] A ten degree Celsius increase in temperature in the RA environment doubles the time of aging.

[9:45] Kuliasha plans to test other manufacturers and possibly other connectors that do not involve Anisotropic Conductive Adhesive.