Funding awarded to Binghamton University to develop electronics and biometric sensor platforms

A new Binghamton University project that proposes to develop electronics and biometric sensor platforms for human performance monitoring has been awarded funding.

The Nano-Bio Manufacturing Consortium, an industry-academia partnership with the United States Air Force Research Laboratory, is funding the $425,000 project.

University of California, Berkeley and i3 Electronics, Inc. are also contributing to the project, which is set for completion in early 2015.

The project was selected for its focus on optimizing packaging to ensure robustness of wearable sensors.

According to the project’s organizers, the electronics platform includes a flexible substrate, battery, processor, WiFi communications and interface electronics, while the biometric sensor platform includes temperature and electrocardiogram sensors, which measure the user’s heart rate.

Using signals from human subjects and a database of human ECG recordings, the platform will test the sensor electrodes and onboard electronics.

“Package form factor and quality play a vital role in creating robust, wearable HPM solutions that are viable for high-volume manufacturing,” said Raj Rai, chief technology officer of i3 Electronics. “We are excited to leverage our expertise in board fabrication, packaging, assembly and test for projects such as this that have the potential to enable fundamental improvements in people’s everyday lives.”

The collaborative project will see Binghamton University undertaking the primary responsibilities of project coordination, systems integration, circuit design and testing, and HPM performance testing.

Meanwhile, UC Berkeley is in charge of printing and verifying the sensor platforms, and i3 Electronics leads fabricating on flexible substrates, component assembly, manufacturing protocols and the 10-unit manufacturing run for final performance testing.

“Wearable HPM sensors have the potential to provide invaluable insight into the state of individual airmen in both operational and medical scenarios,” said Dr. Benjamin J. Leever, AFRL program manager for Flexible Materials & Devices. “Developing and demonstrating an integrated biometric sensor platform is an essential milestone toward realizing this important goal.”

Article Topics

Binghamton University  |  biometrics  |  research and development  |  sensor  |  wearables