Batteryless, Miniaturized Implantable Glucose Sensor Using a Fluorescent Hydrogel

We propose a biomedical sensor system for continuous monitoring of glucose concentration. Despite recent advances in implantable biomedical devices, mm sized devices have yet to be developed due to the power limitation of the device in a tissue. We here present a mm sized wireless system with backscattered frequency-modulation communication that enables a low-power operation to read the glucose level from a fluorescent hydrogel sensor. The configuration of the reader structure is optimized for an efficient wireless power transfer and data communication, miniaturizing the entire implantable device to 3 × 6 mm 2 size. The operation distance between the reader and the implantable device reaches 2 mm with a transmission power of 33 dBm. We demonstrate that the frequency of backscattered signals changes according to the light intensity of the fluorescent glucose sensor. We envision that the present wireless interface can be applied to other fluorescence-based biosensors to make them highly comfortable, biocompatible, and stable within a body.

An autonomous and wireless pulse-amplitude modulated chlorophyll fluorometer

Measuring chlorophyll fluorescence is an important tool in plant research, since it is a reliable non-invasive method for capturing photosynthetic efficiency of a plant and, hence, an indicator of plant stress/health. The principle of chlorophyll fluorometry is based on the optical illumination of a plant’s leaf at a certain wavelength, while simultaneously measuring the emitted fluorescence light intensity at a different optical wavelength. By relating the fluorescence light energy at small and large excitation power, conclusions on the efficiency of the photosystem and, therefore, on the plant’s photosynthesis capability can be drawn. Current mobile chlorophyll fluorometers are either (i) compact and energy efficient but limited in functionality and accuracy by omitting modulated measurement signals or (ii) sophisticated and precise with respect to the measurement, but with the drawback of extended weight, size, energy consumption and cost. This contribution presents a smaller, lighter and cheaper sensor device that can be built with sufficiently low energy consumption to be powered by energy harvesting while being light enough to be attached nearly anywhere such as tree branches. With a device cost below 250 €, the performance of the developed device is similar to more expensive commercial devices considering measurements of the relative variable fluorescence. Moreover, the sensor device provides a wireless interface in the European 868 MHz SRD band with up to 10 km of range in free space while just consuming 150 µW in receiving mode due to a custom duty cycling technique.

Wireless Interface Technologies for 3D IC and Module Integration

Synthesising fifteen years of research, this authoritative text provides a comprehensive treatment of two major technologies for wireless chip and module interface design, covering technology fundamentals, design considerations and tradeoffs, practical implementation considerations, and discussion of practical applications in neural network, reconfigurable processors, and stacked SRAM. It explains the design principles and applications of two near-field wireless interface technologies for 2.5-3D IC and module integration respectively, and describes system-level performance benefits, making this an essential resource for researchers, professional engineers and graduate students performing research in next-generation wireless chip and module interface design.

A Fully Implantable Wireless Bidirectional Neuromodulation System for Mice

Novel research in the field of bioelectronic medicine requires systems that pair high-performance neurostimulation and bio-signal acquisition hardware with advanced software signal processing and control algorithms. Although mice are the most commonly used animal in medical research, the size, weight, and power requirements of such systems either preclude their use or impose significant constraints on experimental design. Here, we describe a fully-implantable neuromodulation system suitable for use in mice, measuring 2.2 cm3 and weighing 2.8 g. A bidirectional wireless interface allows simultaneous readout of multiple physiological signals and complete control over stimulation parameters, and a wirelessly rechargeable battery provides a lifetime of up to 5 days on a single charge. The device was successfully implanted (N=12) and a functional neural interface (capable of inducing acute bradycardia) is demonstrated with functional lifetimes exceeding to three weeks. The design utilizes only commercially-available components and 3D-printed packaging, with the goal of accelerating discovery and translation of future bioelectronic therapeutics.

Laboratory stand with wireless interface for investigation of automatic control systems of dc electric drives

Purpose. Development of a laboratory stand with a wireless interface for the study and research of automatic control systems for DC electric drives. Methodology. Physical experiment on the developed laboratory bench, computer modelling, calculation and analytical methods. Findings. The study considered and analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of existing developments of laboratory stands with virtual and remote components, the possibility of organizing a wireless interface, taking into account cost-effectiveness, mobility, reliability and simplicity, as well as the possibility of using as a training stand. The connection of the stand by means of USB and Wi-Fi is developed. The STM32F103C8T6 microcontroller is used for the power switch and the automatic control system. The interface part consists of a NodeMCU board, a MicroSD card module, an interface control unit, a 16x2 LCD and an I2C converter. The UART-USB interface is used for information transfer and programming of the stand. The possibility of current remote transmission of information about the modes and parameters of the engine to a computer with a browser output by installing the Wi-Fi module ESP8266MOD. A closed system of automatic DC motor control with PID current regulators and EMF has been developed. Experiments were performed with a pulse and smooth increase in motor speed and variation of the components of the PID controllers using the control panel of the laboratory stand. All graphs of the results of the experiment were obtained on a web page with a fixed IP address in the browser via Wi-Fi. Originality. The structure of the remote monitoring and control system based on hardware and software combination of telecommunication and measuring systems is proposed and developed, which differs from the existing ones by the presence of current wireless transmission of information, which allows to remotely receive research data of automatic DC motor control systems. Practical value. The developed laboratory stand with the wireless interface allows to receive and store experimental data on parameters of the investigated engine in real time remotely.

SEAMLESS ROAMING CONTEXT-AWARE IN REMOTE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

In the health-care system, parameters of patients such as Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electromyogram (EMG), Glucose, Blood pressure, motion, etc. are monitored in real-time that assist doctors to timely detect and treat unexpected risks of patients. Thus, it is critical for collected sensor data seamlessly roaming between various types of wireless transmission networks such as Personal Area Network (PAN), Wireless Fidelity (WiFi), Long Term Evolution (LTE). Moreover, congestion carrier frequency between multiple close-by PANs can cause high packet drop rates and useless energy consumption of sensors. From above reasons, we proposed a protocol for PAN-gateway to integrate many wireless communication standards (typically ZigBee, WiFi, LTE) and an optimal control network algorithm for Quality of Service (QoS). Flows of sensor data are seamlessly transmitted through many wireless interface standards in order to achieved the best average data rate; sensor energy used effectively and fairness/priority between many users.

Exploratory approach for network behavior clustering in LoRaWAN

The interest in the Internet of Things (IoT) is increasing both as for research and market perspectives. Worldwide, we are witnessing the deployment of several IoT networks for different applications, spanning from home automation to smart cities. The majority of these IoT deployments were quickly set up with the aim of providing connectivity without deeply engineering the infrastructure to optimize the network efficiency and scalability. The interest is now moving towards the analysis of the behavior of such systems in order to characterize and improve their functionality. In these IoT systems, many data related to device and human interactions are stored in databases, as well as IoT information related to the network level (wireless or wired) is gathered by the network operators. In this paper, we provide a systematic approach to process network data gathered from a wide area IoT wireless platform based on LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network). Our study can be used for profiling IoT devices, in order to group them according to their characteristics, as well as detecting network anomalies. Specifically, we use the k-means algorithm to group LoRaWAN packets according to their radio and network behavior. We tested our approach on a real LoRaWAN network where the entire captured traffic is stored in a proprietary database. Quite important is the fact that LoRaWAN captures, via the wireless interface, packets of multiple operators. Indeed our analysis was performed on 997, 183 packets with 2169 devices involved and only a subset of them were known by the considered operator, meaning that an operator cannot control the whole behavior of the system but on the contrary has to observe it. We were able to analyze clusters’ contents, revealing results both in line with the current network behavior and alerts on malfunctioning devices, remarking the reliability of the proposed approach.

Wireless interface for wearable IoT devices based on inkjet-printing technology

To create a flexible IoT device as thin as possible, DoMicro (Eindhoven, The Netherlands) has developed specific inkjet printing technology and micro assembly techniques to integrate thinned bare dies on foils. Combining these technologies has resulted in a demonstrator for wireless IoT devices