When Biology Becomes the Sensor: Semiconductor-Enabled Platform for Cellular Intelligence
Abstract:
The semiconductor industry transformed how we sense, compute, image, and understand the physical world. The next frontier is emerging at the interface of silicon and biology: living human tissue itself becoming a functional sensing layer. Advances in organoids, tissue engineering, microfluidics, embedded sensors, multimodal imaging, photonics, and AI are converging to create a new class of cellular intelligence platforms.
These systems can move beyond isolated biomarkers to measure how functioning human tissue responds to drugs, disease, toxic exposures, and biological threats opening opportunities in personalized therapy selection, human-relevant and potentially animal-free drug testing, advanced tissue imaging, and immune-integrated threat assessment.
Realizing this will require semiconductor-scale capabilities in precision sensing, CMOS imaging, MEMS, photonics, advanced packaging, automation, process control, and AI. This keynote explores the transition from physical sensors to living sensors, the role of the semiconductor ecosystem, and the longer-term path toward Organoid Intelligence.
Biography:
Dr. Vibhu Sharma is a technology and business leader with 15+ years of international experience spanning semiconductors, cyber physical systems resilience, and MedTech systems. His expertise spans memory semiconductors, ultra-low-energy systems, hardware cybersecurity, MedTech sensing technologies, and has translated innovations into commercial products.
He presently leads the Biosubstrates Program at Philips, advancing living-tissue-based sensing and next-generation biomedical technology platforms. Previously, he served as Chief Technology Officer of L&T Semiconductors and held technology, product, and innovation leadership roles at Philips, Siemens, NXP Semiconductors, and imec.
Dr. Sharma holds a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from imec/KU Leuven, an M.S. from SUNY-Stony Brook and an Executive MBA from the University of Cambridge and is the author of the Springer book Ultra-Low Energy SRAM Design and several high impact patents and publications.