June 19, 2025 Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay, Senior Director & Head of the Medical IoT End Market at GlobalFoundries Healthcare is no longer confined to doctor’s offices or hospitals – its boundaries are being pushed to what can be done in the comfort of your own home through technology. In fact, as healthcare and technology become increasingly inseparable, it’s advancing patient care and transforming how we think of it. From continuous glucose monitors (CGM) to AI-enabled ultrasounds, innovations in healthcare are unlocking possibilities once thought impossible. The rise of ultra-portable, data-rich medical devices is changing how we detect, diagnose and manage health conditions. And it’s doing it before a patient ever steps into a clinic. What is powering this shift? Semiconductors — more specifically, our essential chips. To understand the role GlobalFoundries plays in enabling these medical and health IoT breakthroughs, we spoke with Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, IEEE Fellow and Senior Director & Head of the Medical IoT End Market. In our conversation, Anirban shares what’s driving the shift, where the biggest opportunities lie and why this space is both a technical frontier and a deeply personal mission. Tell us about the intersection of semiconductors and healthcare. Where do you see it evolving in the next few years? We’re at an inflection point in the medtech industry. The medical segment is broadly divided into pharmacology (drugs) and medtech (devices). Here, I’m talking about the latter where we’ve seen a dramatic shift in the last two to three years toward ultra-portable devices. There are a few reasons for this: Healthcare is expensive, it’s time-consuming to access, and the medical stakes only rise as conditions progress. But if we can catch issues earlier (through monitoring, tracking and diagnostics), we can not only improve outcomes but also reduce long-term costs. That’s where point-of-care devices come in. Point-of-care means treatment or diagnostics happen at the site of the patient, whether that’s in a clinic or at home. These devices handle everything from monitoring and diagnosis to therapeutics. For example, think about wearable devices like continuous glucose monitors. As a benchmark, last year, 300 million were sold. That’s unheard of in the medical space. Semiconductors make this possible. To create a device that’s small, low-power and high-performing, you need advanced semiconductor technology. Miniaturization, power efficiency and onboard processing are only possible with custom chips; that’s where GlobalFoundries comes in. This is now more important than ever as the MedTech industry, who once depended on off-the-shelf chips that could be reused for various applications and fields beyond medical, has switched to using custom chips, known as application specific integrated circuits (ASICS), to meet the performance/power needs of their end products, allowing our customers to create truly differentiated solutions suited to their unique applications. Bring us back to the very beginning. How did you get involved in this space, and what drew GF towards it? There are two answers. From GF’s side, we started to see that customers were already using our chips in medical applications — sometimes without us even knowing. That was when we realized we had a unique value proposition: Our technologies could enable power-efficient, high-performance and highly reliable devices. So, we made a conscious decision to lean in as we saw advancing digital healthcare not just as an opportunity, but as a social responsibility aligned with our mission. As for me, I’ve spent most of my career in connectivity, and the industry knows me for that work. But at home, my wife is a microbiologist, and my daughter is entering medicine. Talking to them, I realized I didn’t always understand their world, but I wanted to. It made me think deeply about how semiconductors could power the breakthroughs they’re working toward. That personal connection inspired my pivot into medical IoT. What market or patient trends are driving demand for miniaturized, AI-capable medical devices? One of the biggest drivers is early detection. Right now, if you go to your doctor and reference data from your smartwatch or health ring, they won’t use it to inform the diagnosis they’ll make. But that’s changing. Even if a device isn’t 100% accurate, it can flag early indicators to prompt faster diagnostics and that can save lives. Consumers want to understand how their bodies respond to food, stress or sleep. Devices like CGMs, smartwatches and wearables are increasingly capable of giving those insights. Some are FDA-approved; others aren’t, but they still serve as early warning systems. So, that’s where we’re headed: an era where your body is continuously monitored, and you’re empowered with real-time information on your own health. So, what benefits are GF’s platforms bringing to medical and health IoT devices? Medical device manufacturers are looking for four things: miniaturization, power efficiency, excellent signal-to-noise ratio and extreme reliability. Take our 22FDX® platform for example. It offers industry-leading ultra-low power performance, exceptional receiver sensitivity and a low-noise amplifier. Most medical devices today still use essential nodes (130nm, 90nm, 65nm), but we’re also seeing a shift. As requirements evolve, more customers are moving to 22FDX® to meet next-gen performance and form factor needs. On top of that, GF has a proven track record of supporting long-lifecycle products — critical to the medical field. Our experience in aerospace and automotive, where support over decades is non-negotiable, makes us an ideal foundry for this market. Are there any specific medical applications you’re particularly excited about? Two areas stand out: imaging and diagnostic sequencing. Traditionally, when we think of imaging, we picture big machines like CT scanners. But we’re evolving. Handheld ultrasound devices that connect to smartphones are already here, and they’re a real game changer — especially in areas with limited access to care. With minimal training, someone can capture an image and get AI-assisted diagnostics. The second is diagnostic sequencing – DNA and protein sequencing to be precise. Why send raw data to a massive server farm for processing when you could do it locally with a system-on-chip? Putting a semiconductor chip directly under the sequencer allows real-time analysis and immediate action. Now, that’s revolutionary. GF recently announced its advanced packaging center. How does that fit into the picture? Miniaturization doesn’t stop at node scaling. Chiplet architectures and advanced packaging, like vertically stacked chips, allow us to reduce form factors even further. We’re already working with customers on stacked chip designs at both the wafer and die level. What sets us apart is how we handle power dissipation in these stacked designs. That’s one of the biggest challenges, and we believe we have a more efficient approach than most competitors. That’s a big differentiator in the medical space, where power and heat management are crucial. Final thoughts — what’s really important but often forgotten when it comes to the industry? One thing people often overlook is the lifecycle support required for medical devices. These aren’t short-term products. You need a foundry that can support a device for a decade or longer. GF has that scale and that mindset. We’ve done it for aerospace; we’ve done it for automotive, and we’re ready to do it for medical. That long-term commitment matters. Because at the end of the day, it’s not just about performance or cost; it’s about trust. Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay, PhD, is the Senior Director and Head of the Medical/Healthcare segment within GlobalFoundries. Dr. Bandyopadhyay is also an IEEE Fellow and a Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Electron Devices Society and represents GF in different industry consortia and alliances. Prior to his current role, he held leadership responsibilities within GF, IBM Microelectronics and Intel in areas such as RF Design Enablement, Silicon Photonics, signal integrity in RF and Mixed signal SOC’s and RF technology evaluations for wireless connectivity within different end devices.
