Integration of inkjet and RF SoC technologies to fabricate wireless physiological monitoring system

Abstract

Home and remote healthcare services based on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) have great business potential in future. Despite enormous development in ICT and cloud computing, there is still some technology development needed before such services can be applied into practice and penetrate into markets. One of the key components for IoT based mobile healthcare is an accurate, low-cost, and user-friendly physiological monitoring device. In this study, such an intelligent, unobtrusive conformable, user friendly physiological monitoring device is presented. In particular, the inkjet printing of silver nano-particle ink, NPS-JL from Harima Chemicals, is used to fabricate interconnections and a 2.4 GHz antenna on low-cost stretchable plastics. Interconnections between RF SoC and passive components are made with isotropic conductive adhesive. Finally, the platform is demonstrated as a `plaster' like sensor node that measures the ECG signal and transmits that in real-time to a mobile device using Bluetooth low-energy protocol. Up to 14 m reading distance was demonstrated using the printed antenna in a close vicinity of the body.