SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to measure biological temperatures for many important problems in health care, by advancing a novel temperature sensor. In the near term, a wearable, non-invasive sensor can prevent heat stroke and exhaustion for at-risk cohorts, such as the US military, which suffers from 2800 annual cases of heat stroke in active-duty personnel. Furthermore, heat stroke early warning could diminish injuries and deaths among U.S. high school and college athletes and 7.4 million first responders who typically operate under stressful conditions. Beyond heat stress, this thermometer can monitor elevated brain temperature during the critical hours following stroke or traumatic brain injury (affecting 4.8 million patients per year), which can cause additional brain damage and permanent disabilities. The proposed sensor can directly measure tumor temperature during heating therapy, potentially improving clinical outcomes for some of the 1.8 million patients per year by 20-40% while reducing dosage of debilitating chemicals and radiation. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will demonstrate a novel, non-invasive temperature sensor capable of accurately measuring deep tissue temperature several centimeters below the skin, wherever placed. The proposed sensor detects small microwave signals in a noisy environment by incorporating 20+ signal processing and noise reduction methods with technologies similar to those used in radio astronomy. Non-invasive brain temperature measurement is particularly important as the brain generates and manages its own critical operating temperature, and elusive as it can only be inferred from surrogate measurements without directly cutting into the skull. Direct brain temperature monitoring with a wearable device may provide early warning of many health conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project begins with a wearable, non-invasive device providing vital brain and internal organ temperature measurements in a clinical setting that can dramatically reduce mortality and the risk of permanent brain damage for tens of thousands of patients experiencing cardiac and aortic repair surgery. This impact extends to protecting the brain from additional permanent brain injury and lifelong disability for the 4.8 million people hospitalized annually in the US after stroke, cardiac arrest or traumatic brain injury and 1 million infants born with impaired blood-oxygen flow needing constant brain temperature management in their first hours of life. Finally, this technology offers a more consistent and meaningful internal body temperature measurement for millions of consumers through next generation handheld and wearable thermometers monitoring general wellness and providing advanced notice of changes in health conditions. True internal body temperature will be a powerful complement to the inevitable next generation wearable sensors that integrate many health indicators into a comprehensive and actionable snapshot of personal health.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project fulfills the more than 30-year expectation that true internal body temperatures providing a meaningful metric of wellness. Such technologies measure extremely small electromagnetic thermal noise radiated from within the body. Through the intersection of disparate microwave technologies and biological science, this novel wearable sensor became possible. Research challenges include the development of a design methodology for an ultra-low noise receiver utilizing a near-field wearable probe, the discovery of efficient interference mitigation techniques, and the development of an algorithm for accurate and fast temperature estimation, all within a low-power wearable package. This project will develop the needed sensitivity, spatial resolution, and mitigation of the significant microwave noise from GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular and other common electronic sources. After leveraging off-the-shelf components in Phase I, the company is moving to miniaturized and specialized chips to meet the application need.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.