Electromagnetic Sensors for Wearable Healthcare Applications

Wearable electronics technology for healthcare management, personal safety, and consumer products enhancement has the potential to transform our everyday life and improve the quality of living of healthcare patients and athletes. Non-invasive healthcare monitoring of body signal bio-parameters – such as movements, respiration, and temperature – without physical intervention or interaction with the patient is particularly of interest in this project. To date, the widespread adoption of many body wearables is limited due to intrinsic limitations mainly related to the flexible/rigid interface: complex wiring, mechanical/electrical reliability, presence of rigid and bulky batteries and charging circuits, washability. Seamless integration is key for user convenience that will ultimately lead to adoption of the technology in everyday applications.

This PhD research project envisages developing a wireless body sensor reader that can detect and estimate human body signals through a passive radio-frequency interrogation process and will be integrated with a sensing antenna. It is expected that this PhD research project will change the conventional approach to wearable healthcare electronics, ultimately leading to novel RF circuit architectures that take advantage of modern System-on-a-Package and System-on-a-Chip technology developments, and it may be a key enabler in lowering healthcare costs, particularly for the elderly.