Graphene and Related Materials for the Internet of Bio-Nano Things

Internet of Bio-Nano Things (IoBNT) is a transformative communication framework, characterized by heterogeneous networks comprising both biological entities and artificial micro/nano-scale devices, so-called Bio-Nano Things (BNTs), interfaced with conventional communication networks for enabling innovative biomedical and environmental applications. Realizing the potential of IoBNT requires the development of new and unconventional communication technologies, such as molecular communications, as well as the corresponding transceivers, bio-cyber interfacing technologies connecting the biochemical domain of IoBNT to the electromagnetic domain of conventional networks, and miniaturized energy harvesting and storage components for the continuous power supply to BNTs. Graphene and related materials (GRMs) exhibit exceptional electrical, optical, biochemical, and mechanical properties, rendering them ideal candidates for addressing the challenges posed by IoBNT. This perspective article highlights recent advancements in GRM-based device technologies that are promising for implementing the core components of IoBNT. By identifying the unique opportunities afforded by GRMs and aligning them with the practical challenges associated with IoBNT, particularly in the materials domain, our aim is to accelerate the transition of envisaged IoBNT applications from theoretical concepts to practical implementations, while also uncovering new application areas for GRMs

A Three – tier bio-implantable sensor monitoring and communications platform

One major hindrance to the advent of novel bio-implantable sensor technologies is the need for a reliable power source and data communications platform capable of continuously, remotely, and wirelessly monitoring deeply implantable biomedical devices. This research proposes the feasibility and potential of combining well established, ‘human-friendly' inductive and ultrasonic technologies to produce a proof-of-concept, generic, multi-tier power transfer and data communication platform suitable for low-power, periodically-activated implantable analogue bio-sensors. In the inductive sub-system presented, 5 W of power is transferred across a 10 mm gap between a single pair of 39 mm (primary) and 33 mm (secondary) circular printed spiral coils (PSCs). These are printed using an 8000 dpi resolution photoplotter and fabricated on PCB by wet-etching, to the maximum permissible density. Our ultrasonic sub-system, consisting of a single pair of Pz21 (transmitter) and Pz26 (receiver) piezoelectric PZT ceramic discs driven by low-frequency, radial/planar excitation (-31 mode), without acoustic matching layers, is also reported here for the first time. The discs are characterised by propagation tank test and directly driven by the inductively coupled power to deliver 29 μW to a receiver (implant) employing a low voltage start-up IC positioned 70 mm deep within a homogeneous liquid phantom. No batteries are used. The deep implant is thus intermittently powered every 800 ms to charge a capacitor which enables its microcontroller, operating with a 500 kHz clock, to transmit a single nibble (4 bits) of digitized sensed data over a period of ~18 ms from deep within the phantom, to the outside world. A power transfer efficiency of 83% using our prototype CMOS logic-gate IC driver is reported for the inductively coupled part of the system. Overall prototype system power consumption is 2.3 W with a total power transfer efficiency of 1% achieved across the tiers

Self Capacitance based Wireless Power Transfer for Wearable Electronics: Theory and Implementation

Wireless power transfer (WPT

Self-powered Time-Keeping and Time-of-Occurrence Sensing

Self-powered and passive Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices (e.g. RFID tags, financial assets, wireless sensors and surface-mount devices) have been widely deployed in our everyday and industrial applications. While diverse functionalities have been implemented in passive systems, the lack of a reference clock limits the design space of such devices used for applications such as time-stamping sensing, recording and dynamic authentication. Self-powered time-keeping in passive systems has been challenging because they do not have access to continuous power sources. While energy transducers can harvest power from ambient environment, the intermittent power cannot support continuous operation for reference clocks. The thesis of this dissertation is to implement self-powered time-keeping devices on standard CMOS processes. In this dissertation, a novel device that combines the physics of quantum tunneling and floating-gate (FG) structures is proposed for self-powered time-keeping in CMOS process. The proposed device is based on thermally assisted Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunneling process across high-quality oxide layer to discharge the floating-gate node, therefore resulting in a time-dependent FG potential. The device was fully characterized in this dissertation, and it does not require external powering during runtime, making it feasible for passive devices and systems. Dynamic signature based on the synchronization and desynchronization behavior of the FN timer is proposed for authentication of IoT devices. The self-compensating physics ensure that when distributed timers are subjected to identical environment variances that are common-mode noise, they can maintain synchronization with respect to each other. On the contrary, different environment conditions will desynchronize the timers creating unique signatures. The signatures could be used to differentiate between products that belong to different supply-chains or products that were subjected to malicious tampering. SecureID type dynamic authentication protocols based on the signature generated by the FN timers are proposed and they are proven to be robust to most attacks. The protocols are further analyzed to be lightweight enough for passive devices whose computational sources are limited. The device could also be applied for self-powered sensing of time-of-occurrence. The prototype was verified by integrating the device with a self-powered mechanical sensor to sense and record time-of-occurrence of mechanical events. The system-on-chip design uses the timer output to modulate a linear injector to stamp the time information into the sensing results. Time-of-occurrence can be reconstructed by training the mathematical model and then applying that to the test data. The design was verified to have a high reconstruction accuracy

Design of a Customized multipurpose nano-enabled implantable system for in-vivo theranostics

The first part of this paper reviews the current development and key issues on implantable multi-sensor devices for in vivo theranostics. Afterwards, the authors propose an innovative biomedical multisensory system for in vivo biomarker monitoring that could be suitable for customized theranostics applications. At this point, findings suggest that cross-cutting Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) could improve the overall performance of the system given that the convergence of technologies in nanotechnology, biotechnology, micro&nanoelectronics and advanced materials permit the development of new medical devices of small dimensions, using biocompatible materials, and embedding reliable and targeted biosensors, high speed data communication, and even energy autonomy. Therefore, this article deals with new research and market challenges of implantable sensor devices, from the point of view of the pervasive system, and time-to-market. The remote clinical monitoring approach introduced in this paper could be based on an array of biosensors to extract information from the patient. A key contribution of the authors is that the general architecture introduced in this paper would require minor modifications for the final customized bio-implantable medical device

From Wearable Sensors to Smart Implants – Towards Pervasive and Personalised Healthcare

<p>Objective: This article discusses the evolution of pervasive healthcare from its inception for activity recognition using wearable sensors to the future of sensing implant deployment and data processing. Methods: We provide an overview of some of the past milestones and recent developments, categorised into different generations of pervasive sensing applications for health monitoring. This is followed by a review on recent technological advances that have allowed unobtrusive continuous sensing combined with diverse technologies to reshape the clinical workflow for both acute and chronic disease management. We discuss the opportunities of pervasive health monitoring through data linkages with other health informatics systems including the mining of health records, clinical trial databases, multi-omics data integration and social media. Conclusion: Technical advances have supported the evolution of the pervasive health paradigm towards preventative, predictive, personalised and participatory medicine. Significance: The sensing technologies discussed in this paper and their future evolution will play a key role in realising the goal of sustainable healthcare systems.</p> <p> </p

Intra-Body Communications for Nervous System Applications: Current Technologies and Future Directions

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) paradigm will enable next generation healthcare by enhancing human abilities, supporting continuous body monitoring and restoring lost physiological functions due to serious impairments. This paper presents intra-body communication solutions that interconnect implantable devices for application to the nervous system, challenging the specific features of the complex intra-body scenario. The presented approaches include both speculative and implementative methods, ranging from neural signal transmission to testbeds, to be applied to specific neural diseases therapies. Also future directions in this research area are considered to overcome the existing technical challenges mainly associated with miniaturization, power supply, and multi-scale communications.Comment: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S138912862300163

Advanced photonic and electronic systems - WILGA 2017

WILGA annual symposium on advanced photonic and electronic systems has been organized by young scientist for young scientists since two decades. It traditionally gathers more than 350 young researchers and their tutors. Ph.D students and graduates present their recent achievements during well attended oral sessions. Wilga is a very good digest of Ph.D. works carried out at technical universities in electronics and photonics, as well as information sciences throughout Poland and some neighboring countries. Publishing patronage over Wilga keep Elektronika technical journal by SEP, IJET by PAN and Proceedings of SPIE. The latter world editorial series publishes annually more than 200 papers from Wilga. Wilga 2017 was the XL edition of this meeting. The following topical tracks were distinguished: photonics, electronics, information technologies and system research. The article is a digest of some chosen works presented during Wilga 2017 symposium. WILGA 2017 works were published in Proc. SPIE vol.10445

Nano-Communication for Biomedical Applications: A Review on the State-of-the-Art From Physical Layers to Novel Networking Concepts

We review EM modeling of the human body, which is essential for in vivo wireless communication channel characterization; discuss EM wave propagation through human tissues; present the choice of operational frequencies based on current standards and examine their effects on communication system performance; discuss the challenges of in vivo antenna design, as the antenna is generally considered to be an integral part of the in vivo channel; review the propagation models for the in vivo wireless communication channel and discuss the main differences relative to the ex vivo channel; and address several open research problems and future research directions