Nuestros investigadores

In this paper, a novel Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag for "pick to light" applications is presented. The proposed tag architecture shows the implementation of a novel voltage limiter and a supply voltage (VDD) monitoring circuit to guarantee a correct operation between the tag and the reader for the "pick to light" application. The feasibility to power the tag with different photovoltaic cells is also analyzed, showing the influence of the illuminance level (lx), type of source light (fluorescent, LED or halogen) and type of photovoltaic cell (photodiode or solar cell) on the amount of harvested energy. Measurements show that the photodiodes present a power per unit package area for low illuminance levels (500 lx) of around 0.08 mu W/mm(2), which is slightly higher than the measured one for a solar cell of 0.06 mu W/mm(2). However, solar cells present a more compact design for the same absolute harvested power due to the large number of required photodiodes in parallel. Finally, an RFID tag prototype for "pick to light" applications is implemented, showing an operation range of 3.7 m in fully passive mode. This operation range can be significantly increased to 21 m when the tag is powered by a solar cell with an illuminance level as low as 100 lx and a halogen bulb as source light.

The number of wireless medical wearables has increased in recent years and is revolutionizing the current healthcare system. However, the state-of-the-art systems still need to be improved, as they are bulky, battery powered, and so require maintenance. On the contrary, battery-free wearables have unlimited lifetimes, are smaller, and are cheaper. This paper describes a design of a battery free wearable system that measures the skin temperature of the human body while at the same time collects energy from body heat. The system is composed of an UHF RFID temperature sensor tag located on the arm of the patient. It is assisted with extra power supply from a power harvesting module that stores the thermal energy dissipated from the neck of the patient. This paper presents the experimental results of the stored thermal energy, and characterizes the module in different conditions, e.g., still, walking indoors, and walking outdoors. Finally, the tag is tested in a fully passive condition and when it is power assisted. Our experimental results show that the communication range of the RFID sensor is improved by 100% when measurements are done every 750 ms and by 75% when measurements are done every 1000 ms when the sensor is assisted with the power harvesting module.

This paper describes a method to design mmW PAs, by modeling the electromagnetic behavior of all the passive structures and the layout interconnections using a 3D-EM solver. It allows the optimization of the quality factor of capacitors (Q-factors > 20 can be obtained at 80 GHz), the access points and arrangement of the power transistor cells. The method is applied to the design and optimization of an E-Band PA implemented in a 55 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The PA presents a maximum power gain of 21.7 dB at 74 GHz, with a 3-dB bandwidth covering from 72.6 to 75.6 GHz. The maximum output P1dB is 13.8 dBm at 75 GHz and the peak PAE is 14.1%. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper presents a low power voltage limiter design for avoiding possible damages in the analog front-end of a RFID sensor due to voltage surges whenever readers and tags are close. The proposed voltage limiter design takes advantage of the implemented bandgap reference and voltage regulator blocks in order to provide low deviation of the limiting voltage due to temperature variation and process dispersion. The measured limiting voltage is 2.9 V with a voltage deviation of only +/- 0.065 V for the 12 measured dies. The measured current consumption is only 150 nA when the reader and the tag are far away, not limiting the sensitivity of the tag due to an undesired consumption in the voltage limiter. The circuit is implemented on a low cost 2P4M 0.35 mu m CMOS technology. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The four physiological measures of body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate and blood pressure have for a long time been considered as vital signs in the diagnosis of a patient¿s health. It is also widely accepted that the routine measurement of other physiological or biological signals, possibly pathology specific, would help considerably in diagnosis and early stage treatment. Such measurements might include, for example, heart activity, brain activity, blood glucose level or mobility. Furthermore, the development of portable systems that can make a number of different health related measurements would prove beneficial in the monitoring of patients during treatment, recovery or rehabilitation. Technologies and instruments that can make these measurements have existed for some time, but factors such as their cost, lack of portability and in some instances, a requirement for expert knowledge, have restricted their wide scale use. Today, however, advances in information technology, communications and microfabrication techniques have made possible the realisation of truly portable systems for the measurement of a wide range of physiological signs at any medical intervention. This chapter describes the sensing technologies and systems currently being developed, or that are in use, for the measurement of a new, larger range of vital signs