InSiDe, a European R&D project targeting mobile early-stage cardiovascular disease diagnosis - using Laser Doppler Vibrometry

About imec

Imec is a world-leading research and innovation center in nanoelectronics and digital technologies. Imec leverages its state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and its team of more than 6.000 employees and top researchers, for R&D in advanced semiconductor and system scaling, silicon photonics, artificial intelligence, beyond 5G communications and sensing technologies, and in application domains such as health and life sciences, mobility, industry 4.0, agrofood, smart cities, sustainable energy, education, … Imec unites world-industry leaders across the semiconductor value chain, Flanders-based and international tech, pharma, medical and ICT companies, start-ups, and academia and knowledge centers. Imec is headquartered in Leuven (Belgium), and has research sites across Belgium, in the Netherlands, the UK and the USA, and representation in 3 continents. In 2023, imec's revenue (P&L) totaled 941 million euro.

Further information on imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

The imec group holds a global trademark portfolio, including word marks and combined figurative registered and unregistered trademarks, across national, regional, and international territories. Its lawful use requires prior written consent of IMEC in compliance with the IMEC branding guidelines, which may be updated periodically. The latest version is available upon written request.

About Photonics Research Group

The Photonics Research Group in the Department of Information Technology of Ghent University is an associated lab of imec and performs research in the field of photonic integration – more specifically silicon photonics – and its applications in information and communication technology, in sensing and in life sciences. With its 80 researchers the group has a leading international role in the field and is also very active in graduate education in photonics and in industrial spin-off resulting from its research. More information can be found at www.photonics.intec.ugent.be.

Bold thinking. Bolder actions. We are Medtronic. We lead global healthcare technology, boldly attacking the most challenging problems. Our Mission — to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life — unites a global team of 90,000+ people, and our technologies transform the lives of two people every second, every hour, every day. Expect more from us. Medtronic. Engineering the extraordinary.

The Medtronic Bakken Research Center (BRC) of Medtronic, established in 1987 in Maastricht, is a significant center for research and innovation with a rich history and a diverse group of highly educated and talented employees. Originally starting with 45 employees, it now comprises over 360 international professionals representing more than 35 nationalities. Over the years, BRC has played a crucial role in generating many important innovations.

About Ghent University

Ghent University (UGent) consists of 85 departments across 11 faculties and offers high-quality research-based educational programs in virtually every scientific discipline. UGent distinguishes itself as a socially committed and pluralistic university in a broad international perspective. The motto of the university is ‘Dare to Think’. The university’s appeal is growing every year, with about 50,000 undergraduate and PhD students in 2025, of whom 7400 are international. Numerous research groups, centers and institutes have been founded over the years, becoming world-renowned in disciplines such as biotechnology, aquaculture and micro-electronics.

Ghent University is ranked 90th in the Shanghai and 112rd on the Times Higher Education ranking. The University has participated in numerous EU-funded projects and counts 150  ERC grant holders. The university provides excellent training opportunities to both young and experienced researchers, and is one of the fastest growing European universities in terms of research capacity and productivity. Besides the Photonics Research Group from the Department of Information Technology of Ghent University, other research teams involved are IBiTech-bioMMeda (Biophysical Models for Medical Applications) and the IDLab (Internet Technology and Data Science Laboratory) from the Department of Electronics and Information Systems. IBiTech-bioMMeda, already partner in CARDIS, has recognized expertise in cardiovascular physiology, arterial hemodynamics and biomechanics and is a.o. known for its role in Europe in establishing reference and normal values of arterial stiffness and assessment and validation of methods to measure arterial stiffness. IDLab is a new partner in InSiDe and will bring in their signal processing expertise for the real-time assessment of cardiovascular function using InSiDe technology

About Tyndall National Institute

Tyndall is a leading European deep-tech research centre in integrated ICT (Information and Communications Technology) materials, devices, circuits and systems and a research flagship of University College Cork. Tyndall is Ireland’s largest Research and Technology Organisation (RTO) specialising in both electronics and photonics. Tyndall works with industry and academia to transform research into products in its core market areas of electronics, communications, energy, health, agri-food and the environment. With a network of over 200 industry partners and customers worldwide, Tyndall is focused on delivering human and economic impact from excellence in research. Tyndall is home to a multidisciplinary research community of over 600 people of 52 nationalities, including over 160 postgraduates. For more information, visit www.tyndall.ie.

About Politecnico di Torino

Politecnico di Torino was founded in 1906 and has its roots in the Technical School for Engineers created in 1859.  It is internationally ranked among the most important universities in Europe for engineering and architecture studies, with 33,000 students (out of which 15% are international students coming from over 100 different countries).

Politecnico is a center of excellence for education and research in engineering, architecture, design and planning and it works in close cooperation with the socio-economic system. It is a comprehensive Research University where education and research complement each other and create synergies in order to address the needs of the economic system, of the local community and, above all, of its students.

Politecnico is committed to a strong internationalization process of its teaching, research and technology transfer activities: not only does it work in cooperation with the best universities and research centers in world, but it has also been signing agreements and contracts with important international corporations, as well as local businesses, meaning to be for the latter a focal point for innovation. For more information go to www.polito.it.

About Microchip Technology

Microchip Technology Inc. is a leading provider of smart, connected and secure embedded control and processing solutions. Its easy-to-use development tools and comprehensive product portfolio enable customers to create optimal designs which reduce risk while lowering total system cost and time to market. The company’s solutions serve over 100,000 customers across the industrial, automotive, consumer, aerospace and defense, communications and computing markets. Headquartered in Chandler, Arizona, Microchip offers outstanding technical support along with dependable delivery and quality. For more information, visit the Microchip website at www.microchip.com.

About Argotech

Argotech a.s. is a private company located in the city of Trutnov in the Czech Republic. The company was founded in 2006, based on a tradition of microelectronics fabrication in the region, after the restructuring of Siemens, and later Infineon.

Argotech focuses on manufacturing, engineering, and development services for photonics and micro-electronics. It provides a unique technology-chain, starting from wafer-level packaging to full optical subassembly, and customized packaging solutions.

For custom packaging of optoelectronics components, such as OSAs, micro-modules, etc., Argotech acts as a CM (contract manufacturer) or an ODM (original design manufacturer). For ODM work, Argotech provides optical, electronic, RF, mechanic and thermal management design services.

Argotech has a 15-year track-record of serving customers from the datacom, telecom, airspace, defense, life-science, and final-customer markets, and has a highly experienced team, with a 15-year track-record in packaging & micro-assembly activities, and generating solutions for customers focused on wafer-scale assembly. Argotech has deployed a micro-assembly approach for wafer-level carriers that enables the packaging scale-up of optoelectronics components to higher volumes, as well as reaching very compact component sizes, both of which are required for wearable electronics and medical applications.

Argotech has an experience in RF design of packaging & assembly beyond 100GHz applications, optical coupling of 450nm blue lasers to 2.5μm-SMFs, and customization of packaging processes when off-the-shelf components do not provide the required functionality or performance, etc.

Argotech has been involved in Silicon photonics assembly and packaging activities including development of the related key processes with track record over 7 years of experience.

Argotech offers sample and pilot production, with a fast capacity ramp-up, and flexible shift model to meet the demands of mass production, when needed. For mass production, Argotech has the capacity to span the full value-chain from feasibility studies, to product design, to prototyping, to product qualification.

Argotech is constantly working to incorporate and improve the level of automated assembly in its production-chain, to increase both capacity and yield for customers.

About INSERM

Founded in 1964, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) is a public scientific and technological institute which operates under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Health and French Ministry of Research. As the only French public research institute to focus entirely on human health, in 2008 Inserm took on the responsibility for the strategic, scientific and operational coordination of biomedical research. This key role as coordinator comes naturally to Inserm thanks to the scientific quality of its teams and its ability to conduct translational research, from the laboratory to the patient’s bed. From the outset, Inserm has forged close partnerships with the other public and private research establishments as well as hospitals to fulfil its missions. 80% of Inserm’s 318 research units are currently set up in university hospitals or cancer research centers. Universities are also key partners of Inserm. As the main actor in French biomedical research, Inserm is responsible of 35% of scientific publications and is the #1 applicant for patents in France in the biomedical field.

The INSERM Paris-Cardiovascular research Center (PARCC) was created in 2009 at the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital (Paris, France). The 14 PARCC research teams are conducting projects spanning basic molecular and cellular biology to integrated physiology and pathophysiology, biomarkers, genetics and epidemiology, with the goal of furthering the understanding of major cardiovascular disease, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure and sudden cardiac death. Translational research is an integral part of the mission of the PARCC, in close connection with clinical laboratories and departments of HEGP. INSERM PARCC team 3 studies arterial diseases in a multidisciplinary approach, spanning from genetics to pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment, with a specific focus in arterial diseases in women. It is a world-renowned leader in the study of arterial function (arterial stiffness, endothelial dysfunction) and remodeling (arterial wall thickness and enlargement), which supposes to measure in vivo with high precision the geometric and functional properties of large arteries, at different levels of the arterial tree, in humans.

About Universiteit Maastricht

Within the 40 year-young Maastricht University the Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM) integrates all research in the cardiovascular field. CARIM has an annual budget of ~20 M€, employs ~200 fte of researchers and 70 fte of technical and supporting staff, divided over 13 departments/disciplines. Together they produce more than 500 scientific papers annually. Within CARIM Prof. Frits Prinzen is a well-known investigator in the field of pacemaker therapies for heart failure, using pre-clinical and clinical research for these purposes. Within CARDIS he will evaluate the use of the newly developed products in patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Goal is to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of using the new product and to validate the technical concept for optimizing the application of CRT.

About Fundico

Fundico bv, located in Zwijnaarde, Belgium, is a consultancy company with the objective to assist industrial companies and research organisations with the submission of financing proposals for research and development, mainly in the field of information and communication technologies. These financing proposals are submitted to regional public authorities or to the European Commission. In the latter case these proposals are submitted in response to an official call for proposals issued by the European Commission. In case of project proposals for which financing is granted, Fundico will also, in many cases be involved in the management and coordination of the research and development project.