Wireless microdevices are going smaller and smaller, at the point that we can talk about devices that are able to flow in our blood stream. Nowadays, it’s possible to find proposals on devices for brain activity recording, for hearth activity registration, or prosthesis monitoring, to mention just a few biomedical applications. However, the power source and radiofrequency (RF) passives and antennas have not being scaling down at the same rate. To solve the problem of limited room for power sources, there is a trend on energy harvesting or scavenging, or on wireless powering. The self-folding technology allows the fabrication of extra-small 3D devices from 2D planar layouts, and it is being proposed for many applications. The self-folding fabrication technology may represent a breakthrough in the integration of RF passives and antennas, and will allow the fabrication of RF passives and antennas with unthinkable geometries, at a minimal cost, both on size and system performance. 

The expectable outcome will be a module that can be integrated with sensors and processing electronics to enable a fully integrated microsystem, with wireless power and communications. This project will:

- develop and characterize a set of new RF devices and antennas.

- allow further miniaturization and integration of wireless microdevices

Wireless Systems; 3D Auto-fabricado 3D Self-folding Microdevices; Antennas and RF passives; Biomedical Devices

Team

P. M. Mendes; A. F. Silva; F. Rodrigues; L. A. Rocha; L. M. Goncalves; P. Anacleto

Publications

Journal

Pedro Anacleto, Evin Gultepe, Sofia Gomes, Paulo M. Mendes, David H. Gracias, “Self-folding Microcube Antennas for Wireless Power Transfer in Dispersive Media,” Advanced Materials, Wiley, Submitted.

Patents

D. H. Gracias, E. Gultepe, P. M. Mendes, P. Anacleto, THREE DIMENSIONAL SELF-FOLDED MICROANTENNA, US20140320378 A1, 30/10/2014

Conference

- P. Anacleto, E. Gultepe, D. H. Gracias, P. M. Mendes, "Micro antennas for implantable medical devices", In 3rd Portuguese Bioengineering Meeting, Braga, Portugal, 20-22 February 2013

- P. M. Mendes, “Energy Harvesting from Radio Frequency Sources,” PESTSE 2014 - Power and Energy Systems Conference: Towards Sustainable Energy, 14 March 2014, Bangalore, Invited Talk

- S. Gomes, J. Fernandes, P. Anacleto, E. Gultepe, D. Gracias, P. M. Mendes, “Ultra-Small Energy Harvesting Microsystem for Biomedical Applications,” in 44th European Microwave Conference (EuMC), Rome, Italy, 5-10 October,2014.

- J. Fernandes, C. Abreu P. M. Mendes, “Towards Long-Term Intracranial Pressure Monitoring Based on Implantable Wireless Microsystems and Wireless Sensor Networks,” SPIN-2015 , Second International Conference on Signal Processing and Integrated Networks, Delhi, India, 19-20 February 2015, Invited Paper

- M. Zamith, P. M. Mendes, "Towards an RFID Microsystem for Surgical Instrument Detection Using Millimeter Waves," IEEE 4th Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering (ENBENG), Porto, Portugal, 26-28 Feb., 2015. 

- H. Dinis, P. M. Mendes, "Performance Assessment of wireless Power Transfer Links for Implantable Microsystems," IEEE 4th Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering (ENBENG), Porto, Portugal, 26-28 Feb., 2015. 

- H. Dinis, M. Zamith, J. Magalhães, J. Fernandes, P. M. Mendes, “On-Chip, Efficient and Small Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave Applications”, iWAT 2015, 2015 International Workshop on Antenna Technology - Small Antennas, Innovative Structures and Materials, Seoul, Republic of Korea, March 4-6, 2015. 

- M. Zamith, J. Magalhães, P. Anacleto, P. M. Mendes, “60 GHz On-Chip Antenna Array with Efficiency Improvement Using 3D Microfabrication Technology”, The 9th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Lisbon, Portugal, on 12-17 April 2015. 

- H. Dinis, P. Anacleto, J. Fernandes, P. M. Mendes, Characterization of Chip-Size Electrically-Small Antennas for Smart Wireless Biomedical Devices,” The 9th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Lisbon, Portugal, on 12-17 April 2015. 

- H. Dinis, M. Zamith, P. M. Mendes, “Performance Assessment of an RFID System for Automatic Surgical Sponge Detection in a Surgery Room,” in 37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC), Milan, Italy, August 25-29, 2015

- F. Rodrigues, S. Gomes, P. Anacleto, J. Fernandes, P. M. Mendes, "RF CMOS Wireless Implantable Microsystem for Sacral Roots Stimulation with On-Chip Antenna and Far-Field Wireless Powering," 45th European Microwave Conference (EuMC), Paris, France, 6-11 September, 2015.

- H. Dinis, M. Zamith, J. Fernandes, J. Magalhães, P. M. Mendes, “On-Chip, Efficient and Small Antenna Array for Millimetre-Wave Applications”, Forum of Electromagnetic Research Methods and Application Technologies (FERMAT), vol. 13, 2016. On-line; Invited.