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Joint venture to develop 'bionic' chips

National Chiao Tung University announced on Wednesday that it would build a prosthetic technology platform together with Chi Mei Medical Center and other academic institutions and enterprises to jointly develop intelligent prosthetics, especially electronic chips that can be installed in human brains to treat epilepsy and even Parkinson's disease.

The university hopes to complete animal experiments in three years and human trials in six years, so the new chips can be on the market within a decade.

Early last year, the university established its Intelligent Prosthesis Research Center and successfully developed special chips to assist the physically impaired with advanced bionic and biomedical technology. It says that the new chips will be the next breakthrough in the field and a milestone for bionic technology development that will bring significant benefit to patients.

University President Wu Chung-yu (吳重雨) said the new chip is smaller than a fingernail and is able to monitor a patient's brain waves and restrain irregular waves when they are detected.

Chi Mei superintendent Chio Chung-ching (邱仲慶) said similar chips were first introduced in the US about two years ago, but that each chip costs as much as US$20,000 and its battery will only last two years. After the battery is dead, the patient needs to undergo more surgery to replace it. The locally-produced chips will be about half that price or cheaper.

Other organizations participating in the project are the Industrial Technology Research Institute, National Yang-ming University, Taipei Medical University, China Medical University and chip manufacturers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and United Microelectronics Co (聯電).
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