Meylan, FRANCE – November 19 2020 – IC’Alps, French expert in design and supply of application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), today announced funding from BPIfrance, the AURA region and Grenoble Alpes Métropole to support its collaborative project called BELICIM.
The treatment of age-related diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes or Parkinson, is a major public health issue. Among these pathologies, heart failure is on the rise. Of all adults 70 and older, one in five will develop heart failure in their lifetime. This disease causes 1.5 million hospitalizations each year in Europe. The medical devices required for prevention and diagnosis of such disease can be improved towards greater autonomy, connectivity and performance (signal quality, embedded data processing) and a reduced size (minimally invasive). In this context, the BELICIM project ( BEtter Life Integrated Circuit for Implanted Medical devices) aims at strengthening the French medical industry through the miniaturization and digital transformation of active implanted medical devices (AIMD) and associated services.
The strong and well-balanced consortium of 4 partners (industrial partners, university and center of research is coordinated by IC’Alps:
- SentinHealth, a French MedTech SME, specializing in the development of integrated solutions allowing the analysis of the early pathophysiological warning signs of major chronic diseases,
- TIMC-IMAG, a biomedical research laboratory specializing among other things in cardio-respiratory physiology and physiological signal processing,
- The Center for Clinical Investigation in Technological Innovation (CIC-IT) of CHU Grenoble-Alpes, a structure with the expertise to support the development of innovative medical devices.
The duration of BELICIM project is 36 months with an overall budget of 3.7 million euros. BELICIM aims at increasing the performance of medical implants, also reducing their costs and development time by developing a platform based on integrated circuits (sensor interface, calculation, RF communication, power supply) and meeting the requirements of ISO 13845 quality standards.
Such advances to state-of-the-art will be shown in one demonstration circuit that will be embedded in a first medical device employing AI-based algorithms. This device, an implantable stethoscope, will be introduced to the market by SentinHealth to revolutionize the management of chronic diseases through continuous acquisition of biomarkers.
“With this signed consortium agreement and the support of French institutions, we are directly contributing to solving a public health issue," says Lucille ENGELS, Director of Operations at IC’Alps. "Beyond the circuit prototype developed and integrated in a first preclinical trial, we want to make our future ASIC platform a major booster for companies in the AIMD industry. All the consortium members are also involved in the Deep Care Chair within the MIAI Grenoble Alpes Institute".
For more information: https://www.icalps.com
To discuss a potential ASIC project, please contact our business managers: Email Contact
About IC’Alps
IC’Alps is your one-stop shop ASIC partner. The company provides customers with a complete offering for Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASIC) and Systems on Chip (SoC) development from circuit specification, mastering design in-house, up to the management of the entire production supply chain. From its technical centre in France (Grenoble area), IC’Alps supports multiple projects in the demanding medical, industrial, transport, IoT, and mil/aero sectors. The highly qualified engineering teams cover every expertise needed, and have a long experience of on-demand analog, mixed-signal and digital integrated circuits on technologies from 0.35 µm down to 16 nm. Moreover, IC’Alps has a proven track record of success with sensor/MEMS AFE interfaces, low power consumption designs, high-resolution converters, signal processing, multiprocessors architectures, hardware accelerators, to name a few. Being a partner of major semiconductor foundries, IP providers, as well as packaging and test houses, IC’Alps is well placed to support customers with full life-cycle solutions. IC'Alps is also an Arm® Approved Design Partner, a program created by the world’s leading semiconductor IP company. IC’Alps is ISO 9001, ISO 13485, EN 9100 certified.
Media contact
Elsa BERNARD-MOULIN
