Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Accelerator Supplements

The proposed research consists of the exploration of fully integrated ultra-low power, short-range wireless communications circuits These circuits will be used to communicate to and from sensors, and potentially for radio-frequency identification (RFID). To achieve ultra-low power, these circuits will communicate with pulses which allows the system to be turned off easily between a set of pulses.Novel aspects of this research include the exploitation of on-chip antennas and of a fully integrated power source making use of scavenged power, where scavenged power sources could be ambient light, radio frequency fields, thermal gradients or vibration. While pulse mode communications systems, fully integrated antennas, and on-chip power sources have been demonstrated individually, the novelty here is that they are all used together, and the circuits are being designed with the antenna and power source in mind. As a result, the overall transceiver has the potential to be lower in power, smaller (of the order of a few square mm), and being fully integrated, to be lower cost. The small size is of obvious benefit to bio-medical sensors where large size can cause discomfort to patients to whom biomedical sensors are attached. As one example, in the case of sensors used in radiation therapy, small size and the absence of a battery results in less blockage or deflection of radiation. In RFID applications, small size will allow smaller items to be tagged, for example, jewelry. Benefits of low cost could allow these devices to be considered disposable in biomedical applications. In RFID applications, lower cost means it is more likely these devices would be used to identify lower cost items, for example to replace the bar codes in a grocery store. The design of the proposed low-power, low-cost communcations systems as applied to biomedical sensor would benefit the medical community. If the final goal of replacing barcodes is achieved, such a system would be of enormous benefit to all consumers. And finally, achieving lower power, smaller size and lower cost are universal goals in the electronics industry, so aspects of this research could be applicable to other fields, for example, consumer electronics, communications, and entertainment.