As part of the collaboration between the Chair of Design Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg and the BreatheAssist project of the Chair of Biophysics, a master’s thesis was successfully completed. The thesis was developed at the intersection of product development, medical technology, and regulatory requirements, and highlights the added value of interdisciplinary collaboration in research and development.
The focus was on the risk analysis and optimization of the power hardware system of an intensive care ventilator. To this end, the requirements of the IEC 60601-1 standard were combined with a systematic Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) to identify safety-related vulnerabilities and derive specific optimization measures for the power supply architecture. The goal was to further enhance the system’s electrical safety, fault tolerance, and robustness. The successful collaboration with the BreatheAssist project, as well as with Navid Bonakdar and Catherine Schreiber, demonstrates how different disciplinary perspectives can be combined to develop innovative solutions for medical technology while simultaneously enabling students to participate in highly relevant research and development projects.