Researchers create computer that fits on a pen tip

23.02.2011
Researchers at the University of Michigan today announced they have created the first prototype for a that can hold up to a week's worth of data when implanted in something as small as a human eye.

The computer, called the Phoenix chip, is just over one cubic millimeter in size and was designed to monitor eye pressure in glaucoma patients.

"This is the first true millimeter-scale complete computing system," Dennis Sylvester, a professor at the school and one of the researchers on the project, said in a statement.

Within the computer is an ultra low-power microprocessor, a pressure sensor, memory, a thin-film battery, a solar cell and a wireless radio with an antenna that can transmit data to an external reader device held near the eye.

The Phoenix chip computer just covers the 'N' on a penny

The chip uses a power gating architecture with an extreme sleep mode that powers the computer up briefly every 15 minutes to take readings. By remaining in sleep mode most of the time, the chip sips power, averaging 5.3 nanowatts every time it turns on.