Week 1

          Before I begin, I want to just let everyone know that I will probably post every Sunday to maintain consistency. With that said, here we go. This week was definitely an eye-opener into the amount of testing that is done for individual chips that then become part of the larger pacemaker, which is actually about the size of a silver dollar. The first day at Medtronic was more of a tour and introduction to all the facilities and testing equipment used.  The main obstacle I face right now is trying to remember all the names of the pieces of equipment and remember how they function. On the first day, I spent time on the IC(integrated circuit) test floor where everyone who enter must dress up in a gown, booties, hair net, and face mask to ensure there is no foreign material or static electricity to damage any silicon chips. After viewing different types of test code and programs used to test silicon chips on the IC test floor, we went back to the office floor where the data had to be graphed and analyzed. Once graphed, I attended a meeting where the graphs were each looked at by design experts and noted if any additional testing needed to be done. Overall, I  received spurts of knowledge on codes, equipment, and programs, but became even much more informed of ensuring safety the second day. 

         During the second day, I learned how larger test programs are broken up into smaller test blocks to create more efficient test solutions.  Essentially, each test block or flow has tests at multiple combinations of conditions to ensure that the chip is fully and completely tested. The one intriguing thing I discovered is that some of the tests are designed to force a fail to ensure that the marginal chip will not be shipped. These tests are done in parameters that are outside the normal operating range. For example, one of the conditions that the chips are tested for is temperature. Certain tests will always be expected to fail at the extreme low or high temperatures or the endpoints. Since the temperatures will never reach that extremely low or extremely high temperature in the human body, a fail is completely normal and intended. 

          As the weeks pass, I am very excited to continue with this internship as well as this project and hope to gain an even better insight and understanding into the many ways medical devices are fully tested for safety.