Pressure Ulcer (PU) incidence leads to considerable risk, in particular for the frail elderly, and a large national healthcare treatment cost. Evidence-based methods for assuring the health and safety of patients are urgently needed. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated that sub-epidermal moisture (SEM) present in tissue may be measured by interrogation of tissue dielectric properties and are associated with the presence of erythema and development of early stage PU conditions. A novel wireless handheld device has been developed and will be demonstrated that introduces a series of advances including automated measurement, automated measurement method assurance including application of proper measurement applied pressure, and wireless energy recharge capability. This advances previous successful prototype development to now include a complete point-of-care usage product. This device, termed the SEM Scanner, was successfully verified in trials with 30 subjects and is currently deployed in large clinical trials in nursing homes in Los Angeles. This manuscript and the planned demonstration describe a set of significant technology advances over previous technology based on both new Wireless Health hardware and software system solutions. In addition to the demonstration to be provided of a novel end-to-end system including data acquisition, data archiving, reporting, and compliance verification, data from trials will also be presented.

A low phase noise, wideband, mm-wave, integer-N PLL that is capable of supporting an 802.15.3c heterodyne transceiver is reported. The PLL can generate 6 equally spaced tones from 43.2 GHz to 51.84 GHz, which is suitable for a heterodyne architecture with F LO =(4/5)×F TRX . Phase noise is measured directly at the F LO frequency and is better than -97.5 dBc/Hz@1 MHz across the entire band. The reported frequency synthesizer is smaller, exhibits less phase noise, and consumes less power than prior art. In addition, the F LO tone corresponds to the fundamental of the VCO as opposed to a higher harmonic.

Patients' skin integrity has long been an issue of concern in nursing homes and hospitals. Overall incidence of pressure ulcers for hospitalized patients is as high as 50%. The estimated cost of treating pressure ulcers ranges from $5,000 to $40,000 for each ulcer, depending on severity. A smart compact capacitive sensing wireless handheld system is presented which measures Sub-Epidermal Moisture (SEM) as a mean to detect and monitor early symptoms of ulcer development. The system was successfully verified in trials with 30 volunteers and is currently deployed for clinical trials in four nursing homes.

We present an integrated frequency synthesizer in 65nm CMOS to enable the 81-86GHz satellite communication transceiver. The frequency synthesizer is inserted in a two-step zero-IF millimeter-wave transceiver with LORF at 70-78GHz and LOIF at 1/8 of LORF to cover the desired entire frequency bands. It also features coarse phase rotation to endow beam forming capabilities for the intended communication system. The phase noise is < -83dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset as extrapolated from measured value at 1/8 of the VCO frequency (similar to 9.4GHz). The measured reference spur is <-49dBc. Total synthesizer power consumption including LO buffers and phase rotators is 65mW at 1V power supply and the compact layout has rendered small synthesizer core area of 0.16mm(2).

A digital controlled artificial dielectric (DiCAD) differential transmission line is embedded in 90 nm CMOS to digitally tune a 58-64 GHz DCO. DiCAD varies epsivr,eff from 18.8 to 32.5. A shunt open stub DiCAD provides discrete capacitive tuning with 13.1deg S11 phase variation. The core oscillator is an inductively loaded differential, cross-coupled NMOS pair. Large nonlinear varactors are avoided, and the phase noise is better than -90 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. Linear tuning bandwidth of 9.3% with a 61 GHz center frequency occupying 0.01 mm2 is achieved. Power consumption is 8.52 mW with 1.2 V.

A digitally controlled artificial dielectric (DiCAD) differential transmission line is designed to perform agile linear phase shift over 100deg with thermometer-coded 16 step control. It also operates with a 16 gain-step VGA to enable re-configurable and direct-frequency modulation at 60 GHz with 2562 states (1.1deg angular and 0.0007 magnitude resolutions) and -31 dB static EVM for multiple PSK/QAM modulations. The modulator uses 0.33 mm2 core area in 90 nm CMOS and consumes 10 mA at 1 V.

For gas phase chemical sensing, we have developed a selective, sensitive and portable sensing platform, which integrates bio receptors, chemo-mechanical sensor array, and electrical readout circuits. The biggest challenge in chemical sensors is selectivity of a receptor to its respective target molecule against a background of various interfering agents. For target specific receptors, sequence-specific recognition motifs have been identified through directed evolution methods, called phage display. We have demonstrated and updated a parylene micromembrane surface stress sensor array which uses capacitive signal readout. For a fully integrated sensor platform, a portable chemical sensing board has been built.