About Us
The Electronics Core is an electronics design, development and repair facility located within Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute. We specialize in proof-of-concept design and prototyping, and early stage development of medical devices and laboratory research instrumentation.
We have the facilities and personnel to turn concepts into fully functional prototypes with most or all of the work performed in-house. This includes system design, schematic capture, printed circuit board layout, board fabrication, assembly and testing.
Each member of our team of engineering professionals has more than 20 years of experience solving complex problems and creating intellectual property for our clients. Our collocation with the world class physicians, scientists and facilities of Cleveland Clinic provides a unique advantage.
Contacts
Services
The Electronics Core provides many services on a fee-for-service or contractual basis. Our primary services include electronic circuit design, printed circuit board production, sensor system design, data acquisition system design and electromechanical equipment repair.
The Electronics Core is well-equipped to handle many projects utilizing multiple technologies. Our laboratory contains a Ray-Proof RF shielded room, three systems for rapid circuit board prototyping and manufacture, a vast assortment of through-hole and surface mount components, and computer stations with the latest design and CAD/CAM software.
Our engineers specialize in low power microcontroller circuits for both implantable and wearable medical devices. One example of our work with low power implantable devices is a bone marrow oxygen telemetry system. This system monitors the oxygen tension in the marrow space of the femur over a period of one month, transmitting the data out daily allowing researchers to track the progress of bone revascularization after damage.
Design and Schematic Capture
Our engineers have vast experience in the design of analog, digital and mixed signal circuits for many different applications that include ultralow power, high resolution and RF systems. We use OrCAD design and simulation software as well as WinQCad to document and transfer designs to manufacture.
The Electronics Core houses three PCB rapid prototyping instruments, a T-Tech QuickCircuit 7000 for large format boards, a LPKF Protomat S100 for high precision milled boards with automatic tool changing, and a LPKF Protolaser U for very high resolution boards on a whole range of substrates that include FR4, PET, ceramics, TMM, Duroid and PTFE. These machines coupled to our state-of-the-art computer-aided design and manufacturing systems allow us to create working solutions quickly and design modifications and new prototypes, often in the same day.
Laser Rapid Prototyping
The Electronics Core uses the LPKF Protolaser U system for rapid, high resolution PCB production. This system can quickly create complex, high pitch boards in small or large quantities, often at a fraction of the cost of typical big run board houses.
Machininig Rapid Prototyping
We own two CNC machine routers for PCB production. These systems are
very useful for larger boards and for machining complex board outlines and inner cuts.
PCB Building and Testing
Our engineers and technicians are expert assemblers and can build and test almost
any circuit in-house.
We are able to repair most electronic or electro-mechanical equipment at rates that are significantly lower than outside vendors. We also have several instruments available for short-term loan while equipment is being repaired.
Repair Services
Our repair technician has over 25 years of experience in equipment repair, specializing in laboratory equipment repair that includes centrifuges, incubators, shakers, water baths as well as many other types of equipment.
Portfolio
Client: Dr. George Muschler, Cleveland Clinic Orthopaedic Surgery
Services Provided: Design and manufacture of the following: sensors, implanted circuit, receiver circuit, implanted enclosure and computer interface.
This client was developing new bone scaffold materials to improve the healing of bone defects. One measure of the effectiveness of these materials is the extent to which they promote revascularization in and around the bone defect. To measure the amount of revascularization, we needed to measure the oxygen levels in each bone defect as the bone healed. This system was designed to measure the oxygen tension in each of four defects that were treated with different bone scaffold materials and telemeter the data out of the test subject to a nearby computer data acquisition system.
Client: Volcano Corporation, San Diego, California
Services Provided: Image synchronization timing research, IVUS signal digitization, Gating circuit design, manufacture testing and installation.
The client needed to synchronize the capture of IVUS images to the beat of the patient’s heart in order to perform advanced proprietary signal processing. We designed and built the system in two different versions: the first for first-in-man studies in Europe, and later, a PCI version which was installed into the company’s research data acquisition systems. These systems were the basis for a product that is now sold all over the world.
Client: Dr. Leonard Golding, Cleveland Clinic Biomedical Engineering
Services Provided: Motor controller and data acquisition circuit design and manufacture, and data acquisition and analysis software development.
The total artificial heart program headed by Dr. Leonard Golding at Cleveland Clinic has been at the forefront of artificial heart research for many years. When they needed motor control and data acquisition and analysis hardware and software for their exciting new heart system, they called on the Electronics Core as a research partner.