Although implanted medical devices aren't subjected to temperature extremes or shocks, the risk of long-term failure must be considered.
Implanted electronic medical devices face an unusually benign environment in many respects. However, mechanisms still exist by which circuitry may degrade and even fail in service. Because of the extreme financial and ethical liabilities involved, engineers should carefully consider how to test for these failure mechanisms and, in particular, how to minimize the risk of them occurring. Preventing these failures has-or should have-direct implications for design and materials selection, and thus for the assembly approach.