I-Corps: Non-weighted Digital Circuits for Low Power Wearable Medical Device

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

As the baby boomers enter retirement, medical cost becomes significant. In 2014, health care accounted for more than 20% of US spending. The wearable medical device provides a solution to alleviate this problem since it can sense, process, and transmit biomedical signals and identify abnormal signals using predefined algorithms and signal processing hardware, and call for help when necessary. It is also a critical component for the future unmanned medical nursing system. However, current wearable medical devices cannot perform real-time signal processing and transmission due to the limited battery power supply. In this I-Corps project, the team plans to explore market opportunities of its proposed non-weighted and asynchronous digital circuits in wearable medical devices. The team's proposed technology is based on pulse-based digital neuromorphic circuits and asynchronous radio systems, which replace the conventional multi-bit binary adders and multipliers in linear signal processing and the synchronization process in wireless communication, respectively. The proposed methods provide a low-power and low-complexity solution for digital and radio circuit design. These methods don't require modification of the current digital signal processing algorithm or integrated circuit fabrication technology. This allows the proposed technology to be easily adopted in current designs, extending the battery lifetime of the system, providing more processing capability and enhancing the power efficiency of the radio devices. In addition, the proposed wearable medical device can be extended to entertainment and sports training products, which are also important and promising markets.