Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are expected to promote new applications for the ambulatory health monitoring of chronic patients and elderly population, aiming to improve their quality of life and independence. These networks are composed by wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) used for measuring physiological variables (e.g., glucose level in blood or body temperature) or controlling therapeutic devices (e.g., implanted insulin pumps). These nodes should exhibit a high degree of energy autonomy in order to extend their battery lifetime or even make the node supply to rely on harvesting techniques. Typically, the power budget of WSNs is dominated by the wireless link and, hence, many efforts have been directed during the last years toward the implementation of power efficient transceivers. Because of the short range (typically no more than a few meters) and low data rate (typically in between 10 kb/s and 1 Mb/s), simple communication protocols can be employed. One of these protocols, specifically tailored for WBAN applications, is the Bluetooth low energy (BLE) standard. This book describes the challenges and solutions for the design of ultra-low power transceivers for WBANs applications and presents the implementation details of a BLE transceiver prototype. Coverage includes not only the main concepts and architectures for achieving low power consumption, but also the details of the circuit design and its implementation in a standard CMOS technology.

This book explores the design of ultra-low-power radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), with communication distances ranging from a few centimeters to a few meters. The authors describe leading-edge techniques to achieve ultra-low-power communication over short-range links. Many different applications are covered, ranging from body-area networks to transcutaneous implant communications and smart-appliance sensor networks. Various design techniques are explained to facilitate each of these applications.

This open access book was prepared as a Final Publication of the COST Action IC1406 “High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications (cHiPSet)“ project. Long considered important pillars of the scientific method, Modelling and Simulation have evolved from traditional discrete numerical methods to complex data-intensive continuous analytical optimisations. Resolution, scale, and accuracy have become essential to predict and analyse natural and complex systems in science and engineering. When their level of abstraction raises to have a better discernment of the domain at hand, their representation gets increasingly demanding for computational and data resources. On the other hand, High Performance Computing typically entails the effective use of parallel and distributed processing units coupled with efficient storage, communication and visualisation systems to underpin complex data-intensive applications in distinct scientific and technical domains. It is then arguably required to have a seamless interaction of High Performance Computing with Modelling and Simulation in order to store, compute, analyse, and visualise large data sets in science and engineering. Funded by the European Commission, cHiPSet has provided a dynamic trans-European forum for their members and distinguished guests to openly discuss novel perspectives and topics of interests for these two communities. This cHiPSet compendium presents a set of selected case studies related to healthcare, biological data, computational advertising, multimedia, finance, bioinformatics, and telecommunications.

Wireless sensor networks have the potential to become the third wireless revolution after wireless voice networks in the 80s and wireless data networks in the late 90s. Unfortunately, radio power consumption is still a major bottleneck to the wide adoption of this technology. Different directions have been explored to minimize the radio consumption, but the major drawback of the proposed solutions is a reduced wireless link robustness. The primary goal of Architectures and Synthesizers for Ultra-low Power Fast Frequency-Hopping WSN Radios is to discuss, in detail, existing and new architectural and circuit level solutions for ultra-low power, robust, uni-directional and bi-directional radio links. Architectures and Synthesizers for Ultra-low Power Fast Frequency-Hopping WSN Radios guides the reader through the many system, circuit and technology trade-offs he will be facing in the design of communication systems for wireless sensor networks. Finally, this book, through different examples realized in both advanced CMOS and bipolar technologies opens a new path in the radio design, showing how radio link robustness can be guaranteed by techniques that were previously exclusively used in radio systems for middle or high end applications like Bluetooth and military communications while still minimizing the overall system power consumption.

The book is a comprehensive treatment of the field, covering fundamental theoretical principles and new technological advancements, state-of-the-art device design, and reviewing examples encompassing a wide range of related sub-areas. In particular, the first area focuses on the recent development of novel wearable and implantable antenna concepts and designs including metamaterial-based wearable antennas, microwave circuit integrated wearable filtering antennas, and textile and/or fabric material enabled wearable antennas. The second set of topics covers advanced wireless propagation and the associated statistical models for on-body, in-body, and off-body modes. Other sub-areas such as efficient numerical human body modeling techniques, artificial phantom synthesis and fabrication, as well as low-power RF integrated circuits and related sensor technology are also discussed. These topics have been carefully selected for their transformational impact on the next generation of body-area network systems and beyond.

This book describes the design of CMOS circuits for ultra-low power consumption including analog, radio frequency (RF), and digital signal processing circuits (DSP). The book addresses issues from circuit and system design to production design, and applies the ultra-low power circuits described to systems for digital hearing aids and capsule endoscope devices. Provides a valuable introduction to ultra-low power circuit design, aimed at practicing design engineers; Describes all key building blocks of ultra-low power circuits, from a systems perspective; Applies circuits and systems described to real product examples such as hearing aids and capsule endoscopes.

This book is based on the 18 tutorials presented during the 22nd workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design. Expert designers present readers with information about a variety of topics at the frontier of analog circuit design, including frequency reference, power management for systems-on-chip, and smart wireless interfaces. This book serves as a valuable reference to the state-of-the-art, for anyone involved in analog circuit research and development.