Reliable Emerging Electronics in Wearable and Implantable Healthcare Applications

Flexible electronics (FE) are enabling a new generation of wearable and implantable healthcare systems; however, ensuring reliable operation remains challenging due to process variability, mechanical deformation, and harsh physiological environments. In implantable settings, long-term exposure to bodily fluids and pressure variations accelerates device degradation, while strict constraints on power and integration make the use of batteries and active electronics undesirable. This work presents a cross-layer approach to reliability in flexible healthcare systems by combining passive implantable sensing with robust wearable electronics. At the circuit level, we introduce ReFlex-LDO, a gainboosted IGZO-TFT low-dropout regulator designed for capacitorlight operation and integrated with a structural delay-based built-in self-test (BIST) scheme, achieving ∼95% fault coverage with minimal overhead. For signal acquisition, we develop a hierarchical fault modeling and mitigation framework for IGZObased Flash ADCs, enabling up to 98% single-fault and 91% multi-fault coverage through targeted design enhancements. At the system level, we propose a passive RF-based sensing mechanism for monitoring fluid flow in implantable biomedical devices, eliminating the need for on-board power and improving long-term reliability. ... mehrBy pairing passive implantable sensing elements with flexible wearable processing units, the proposed approach enables continuous health monitoring while mitigating risks associated with device degradation in the body.