Cleveland Clinic
• Business: Implantable
artificial kidney for patients
with end-stage renal disease
• Challenge: Achieve optimal
collaboration among domain
experts in multiple
geographic locations
• Solution: SoftMEMS’ flexible
design environment enabled
effective multi-site
information exchange
• Value: Unified co-design
environment enables
innovation that saves human
lives
Implantable artificial kidney uses MEMS membranes to
filter blood just like kidneys do
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Cleveland Clinic – Artificial Kidney
A potential High Volume Application
Red Blood Cells
• MEMS filters are replaced every year
• 100s of filters are used in each device
White Blood
Cells
Silicon Membranes
Close up shows two membranes - real device
uses 100s of membranes
MEMS-Silicon membrane filters out salts and small
molecules