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From the desk of Samy,

I keep my promises and as I told you, Dra. E. Valderrama gave us a conference about micro systems. This is the summary, I hope you’ll like it.

First of all, in order to understand what a micro system is, we have to go back in time a few years. In 1904, Electronic bore with the invention of the triode. It’s an object quite bigger (10cm. or so) made by 3 electrodes. When a signal came in from one side, it came out amplified by the other side.

This triode is the father of what we currently know as a transistor (much smaller).

To have an idea of what it means, a Pentium has about 2.000.000 transistors (and a dual core, much more).

Most of us perfectly know what ENIAC was: one of the first computers. It incorporated 18.000 triodes and had a total of 100m. just for itself. It weighted 40.000 Kg. and needed a total of 13kW/h ! And had an average of 3 minutes/failure. Let’s compare with a current laptop now, a Pentium IV: 3.300.000 transistors and consuming less than 100w/h. A huge improvement in about 50 years! When did the transistor appear? in 1947. It’s said to be the birth of the microelectronics because we changed from a big object (triode) to a little one (transistor, about 100Micras). Then, in 1958 Jack Kilby achieved a better use of the transistors: he created the first integrated circuit, combining some elements.

From microelectronic to microsystems was quite easy: combining the components scientists started to create great things for the human being. And the medical world, by extension, started to be able to work against some impossible problems before all of this started. 

Thank to microelectronics, improving really fast, we could use pacemakers, we could treat epilepsy, and other diseases. But the most significant step is when we go from just a simple circuit to the ability of working with electrodes, creating sensors and actuators that in front of some stimuli they respond with an electric signal (well, when electrodes move, a electric signal is created) that are able to stimulate the nerves, improving the quality of life of those people who need this mechanism to survive (partial paralytics, blinds can see a very little bit (it’s better than nothing!), deafs can heard something,…).

Now, this technology is still improving very fast and the most advanced investigations are not trying to create a better circuits but to be able to move a single electrode, that’s to say, to work at molecular level!

If at microelectronic level we can proporcionate a better life to deafs, blinds and so on, can you imagine how far we can go with nanosystems instead of microsystems?

Personally, about the conference, it was really good. It lasted just an hour and it was a pitty because the topic was really extensive and I would have liked to learn/know more, but well, even though it would have to be larger, we understood the importance of microsystems and how the nanosystems could revolutionize the world in a near future.

…SaMy*^57

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