SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to develop a customized radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit (IC) using radio frequency Identification (RFID) technology. This RF IC will be used in cardiopulmonary monitoring system. The system uses a disposable MEMS sensor in the form of adhesive tags that receive power remotely through a remote radio frequency source. In this proposed system, heart and lung sounds are obtained through wireless communication with a personal computer (PC) node. With the PC, heart and lung sounds are presented graphically, recorded or analyzed for further use. The PC node will be part of a patient monitoring (PM) system. The system operates in the new medical frequency band wireless medical telemetry system (WMTS) with a minimum interference from external interference system. The RF IC will consist of a microcontroller, nonvolatile memory, instruction sequencer, detection circuit, and basic modulation circuitry. Micro-power designs are used throughout the planned IC. At present a wireless, battery-less system that can be used for short term and long term monitoring is not available on the market. The proposed system, using Stethographics applications software, will replace analog electronic stethoscopes for clinic patient monitoring and remote patient monitoring applications with a fully digitized, wireless and battery-less tag-based system. If successful this product bring reduction in cost, simplicity of the system, higher reliability, wireless/ battery-less features, greater robustness and comfort. It will meet an important clinical need while providing an almost revolutionary opportunity for widespread societal lung and heart monitoring reaching millions of people including in particular those with limited budgets

This Small Business Innovation Reseach (SBIR) Phase II research project will develop an RFID system with sensor tags. This work focuses on design and implementation of a custom CMOS integrated circuit which contains hybrid analog-digital circuits on a micro-power tag. The biomedical application is vital signs monitoring including heart and lung sounds. The sensor tag operates within an RFID environment. Micro-electromechanical systems technology is used to fabricate an optimized sensor together with CMOS circuitry on the RFID-compatible tag. Heart sounds are presented as time-varying waveforms and processed algorithmically for feature extraction. Micro-power designs are used throughout the planned system. The commercialized product with disposable tag sensors can replace the jungle of wiring currently used with direct-wired sensors or, for wireless pods, the need to replace batteries frequently. The system provides a patient monitoring capability that is very convenient, highly-cost effective, capable of chronic use, and does not interfere with nearby heart pacers. The ease of application makes this system ideal as a teaching tool for medical students and specialists with both visual waveforms and sound presented to the operator simultaneously. The system will be used in hospitals, clinics, medical offices, and for outpatients in the home