Low-energy UWB-IR Communication Product with High Precision Object Localization Adapted for Human Vital Signs Communication

The main goal of the project is an ultra wideband impulse radio (UWB-IR) communication product adapted for use within health-/home-based care and integration with biomedical sensors. The UWB-IR communication product will be implemented as a System on Chip (SoC) in advanced integrated CMOS technology. Through introducing new and innovative communication technology the project will bring opportunities for robust and secure monitoring of sick, disabled and elderly people within home- or hospital-based care w ith a large potential of increasing Quality of Life for the individual and dramatically reducing the society cost related to health and social services. By utilizing Ultra Wideband Impulse Radio (UWB-IR) technology, several new features are introduced: - Extremely small sensor modules can be realized. -Significantly larger number of simultaneously nodes. -Robustness of communication due to rich spectral content in the signal. -Inherent hardware scrambling by using pseudo random symbol encoding. -High pr ecision positioning moving from meter to millimeter range. The UWB communication principle is recognized by very narrow pulse transmission putting strict demands on the technology used to implement the front-end circuitry which must be able to handle fr equencies in the order of 10 GHz and still maintain a secure and reliable communication. The introduction of the positioning feature will increase the demands even further. The versatility of wireless technology is undisputed, but major efforts are requi red to improve reliability of wireless links in critical healthcare applications. Especially for advanced multisensor scenarios in non-controlled environments (e.g. at home / everyday life), there is a large challenge in bringing new portable and robust t echnology. Within healthcare the quality of treatment and efficiency in handling information may be improved significantly.