Philip R. Troyk

Philip R. Troyk is Executive Director, Pritzker Institute of Biomedical Science and Engineering, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Affiliate Professor, Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Faculty Associate, Division of Biological Sciences – Department of Neurosurgery at The University of Chicago. He is founder, president, and CEO of Sigenics, Inc. Sigenics is the only private-label custom semiconductor company headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Chicago and Irwindale, CA.

Academically, Troyk has a broad range of research interests related to neuroprosthetic devices which are implantable electronic modules that interface with the biological nervous system for the purpose of compensating for deficit, or disease, by mimicking normal sensory or motor function. Examples are neuromuscular stimulators for stimulating paralyzed muscles, implanted sensors for control of prosthetic limbs, neural interfaces for bioelectronics medicines, and brain interfaces. He is leader of a large multi-institutional team working to develop an intracortical visual prosthesis for individuals with blindness. His work is highly cross-disciplinary, and incorporates novel methods of design innovation and marketing-type decision processes. As CEO of Sigenics, he leads an engineering organization that supplies 250,000 custom electronic chips/year placed in modules that control on-board avionics for Boeing and Airbus planes, as well as develops chips that are in medical clinical trials for implantable neural interfaces devices.

His interests include structured methods of design that focus heavily upon customer involvement, and highly-adaptable project management methodologies.

Education

Ph.D., University of Illinois, Chicago
M.S., BioEngineering, University of Illinois, Chicago
B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana

Research Interests

Design of implantable electronic devices and systems to act as neural interfaces. The interfaces provide communication to, and from, the central and peripheral nervous system for the purposes of compensating for neuromuscular deficit and disease.

Current Projects

Intracortical Visual Prosthesis – A system of modules to be implanted into the brain for restoration of visual sensation for people with blindness. The micro-sized wireless implanted devices communicate image information directly to the brain.

Sensors for Prosthetic Limb Control - Implantable myoelectric sensors (IMES) for sensing motor commands to control prosthetic limbs. The wireless grain-of-rice sized sensors transmit muscle commands directly to an artificial limb.

Bioelectronic Medicine Interfaces – Devices that provide sensing, stimulation, and blocking of autonomic peripheral nerves in order to act as a substitute for pharmacological-based therapies. The neural activity is modulated to facilitate improved organ function for diseases such as hypertension, incontinence, asthma, and chronic pain.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

IEEE

Biomedical Engineering Society

International Functional Stimulation Society (Board of Directors)

Alliance for Innovations in Neural Technology

American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology

ACS American Chemical Society

MRS membership

International Society of Hybrid Manufacturers

Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering

Awards

Fellow of AIMBE

Fellow, Institute of Physics

IEE (London) V.K. Zworkin Premium

Sigma Xi Chicago Area Regional Award Recipient

Alfred Mann Foundation Award for Scientific Achievement

Engineering Excellence Award, Northrop Corporation D.S.D.

National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi

Publications

1. P. R. Troyk and M. A. K. Schwan, "Closed-loop class-E transcutaneous power and data link for microimplants," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 39, pp. 589-599, Jun 1992.
2. P. R. Troyk, "Injectable electronic identification, monitoring, and stimulation systems," Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, vol. 1, pp. 177-209, 1999.
3. P. R. Troyk and M. A. Schwan, "Class-E driver for transcutaneous power and data link for implanted electronic devices," Medical & Biological Engineering & Computing, vol. 30, pp. 69-75, Jan 1992.
4. T. Cameron, G. E. Loeb, R. A. Peck, J. H. Schulman, P. Strojnik, and P. R. Troyk, "Micromodular implants to provide electrical stimulation of paralyzed muscles and limbs," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 44, pp. 781-790, Sep 1997.
5. P. Troyk, T. Bak, J. Berg, D. Bradley, S. Cogan, R. Erickson, et al., "A model for intracortical visual prosthesis research," Artificial Organs, vol. 27, pp. 1005-1015, Nov 2003.
6. S. F. Cogan, P. R. Troyk, J. Ehrlich, and T. D. Plante, "In vitro comparison of the charge-injection limits of activated iridium oxide (AIROF) and platinum-iridium microelectrodes," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 52, pp. 1612-1614, Sep 2005.
7. R. E. F. Weir, P. R. Troyk, G. A. DeMichele, D. A. Kerns, J. F. Schorsch, and H. Maas, "Implantable Myoelectric Sensors (IMESs) for Intramuscular Electromyogram Recording," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 56, pp. 159-171, Jan 2009.
8. D. McCreery, V. Pikov, and P. R. Troyk, "Neuronal loss due to prolonged controlled-current stimulation with chronically implanted microelectrodes in the cat cerebral cortex," Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 7, Jun 2010.
9. Troyk, P.; Hu, Z., "Simplified Design Equations for Class-E Neural Prosthesis Transmitters," IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol.60, no.5, pp.1414-1421, May 2013

Patents

Composite Polymer Coatings for IC Encapsulation #4,939,014

Composite polymer/Desiccant coatings for IC Encapsulation #4,977,009

Composite polymer/Desiccant coatings for IC Encapsulation #5,108,784

Self-regulating Class E Resonant Power Converter Maintaining Operation in a Minimal Loss Region #5,179,511

Electromagnetic Energy Transmission and Detection Apparatus #5,012,236

Method and apparatus for modulating and detecting a subcarrier signal for an inductively coupled transponder #5,095,309

Method and apparatus for producing a subcarrier signal for transmission by an inductively coupled transponder #5,198,807

Automated method for the manufacture of small implantable transponder devices #5,025,550

Automated method for the manufacture of small implantable transponder devices #5,050,292

Implantable microstimulator #5,193,539

Implantable microstimulator #5,324,316

Suspended carrier modulation of high-Q transmitters #5,697,076

Inductive data and power link suitable for integration #7,271,677

Wireless Recording and Stimulation of Brain Activity #8,849,369

Entrepreneurship

Founder, President, CEO, of Sigenics, Inc, a microelectronics design and manufacturing company located in the University Technology Park