NeTS: Small: Toward Wirelessly Rechargeable And Ultrasonically-networked Implantable Systems

该项目的研究目标是为基于微机电系统（MEMS）的新型微型无线植入物奠定基础，该植入物通过超声波联网和充电。通过低功耗超声波通信的低能量微型植入物的可用性将实现实时无线遥测和可重新编程性，同时将对植入物电池寿命的影响降到最低。此外，超声波无线充电几乎可以消除医疗植入物设计中对电池寿命的限制。例如，根据最近的研究，9%的患者在心脏电池更换后出现并发症。更低的功耗和无线电池充电将降低这些风险，以及更换成本。该团队将与领先的临床专家合作，将拟议的技术应用于医疗领域的不同设备。该项目将支持和培养两名研究生，他们将成为体内超声网络技术及其应用方面的专家。该项目将分为几个基础研究任务，并围绕设计和开发小型化灵活传感、处理和网络平台（u-mote）的潜在努力。u-mote将通过集成小型化低功耗fpga和微控制器来构建，以提供硬件和软件可重新编程性。该项目将首先寻求设计新的微机械超声波氮化铝（AlN） MEMS换能器阵列，其带宽大于1mhz，具有聚焦和波束形成能力。超声波通信接口将实现最先进的通信和网络方案，这些方案完全是软件定义的，并且可以通过一组模块化库进行组合。最后，u-mote将具有新的基于mems的能量收集和超声波无线充电功能，以及新颖的零待机功率唤醒接口。

The research objective of this project is to develop the foundations for a new family of Micro-electromechanical System (MEMS)-based miniaturized wireless implants that are networked and recharged through ultrasonic waves. The availability of low-energy micro-implants that communicate through low-power ultrasonic communications will enable real-time wireless telemetry and re-programmability while minimally affecting the implant battery life. Moreover, ultrasonic wireless battery charging could virtually eliminate the battery life constraint from the design of medical implants. For example, according to recent studies, 9% of patients experienced complications following a cardiac battery replacement. Lower power consumption and wireless battery charging would reduce these risks, as well as replacement costs. The team will collaborate with leading clinical experts to apply the proposed technology to different devices in the medical field. The project will support and train two graduate students who will become experts in the intra-body ultrasonic networking technology and its applications. The project will be articulated into several basic research tasks, and revolve around an underlying effort to design and develop a miniaturized flexible sensing, processing, and networking platform (u-mote). The u-mote will be built by integrating miniaturized low-power FPGAs and microcontrollers to offer hardware and software re-programmability. The project will first seek to design new arrays of micro-machined ultrasonic Aluminum Nitride (AlN) MEMS transducers with bandwidth larger than 1 MHz offering focusing and beamforming capabilities. The ultrasonic communication interface will implement state-of-the-art communication and networking schemes that are fully software-defined and composable through a set of modular libraries. Finally, the u-mote will have new MEMS-based energy harvesting and ultrasonic wireless recharging capabilities, and a novel zero-standby-power wake-up interface.