The Need

Conventional vector network analyzers are bulky and expensive and tend to limit the ability to be used for daily tracing or high-frequency health status tracking in people. To overcome this and other limitations present in the cumbersome designs of today, compact-sized devices that take advantage of miniaturization in electronics technology, along with other factors such as being easy to manufacture, inexpensive, and capable of using common wireless communication protocols, are becoming a necessity.

The Technology

A novel readout circuit capable of quickly identifying a sensor’s resonance frequency and the return loss and communicating via wireless has been designed in this invention. The design is suitable for LRC-based sensors, and its compact form factor enables easy integration and communication with the common user and consumer devices. The simplicity of the design consisting of a clock generator combined with a directional coupler and a peak detector provides the necessary functionality around detection and communication to the user’s device through common wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth or NFC.

Commercial Applications

Health monitoring devices integrated into clothing and /or attached to a person’s body can benefit from this invention due to its lightweight and compact form factor and multiple performance improvement attributes over conventional designs. The design also helps capture information related to body and health vitals, status, and other important tracking-type measures for longer-pattern or trend analysis.

Benefits/Advantages

The design overcomes limitations in current approaches, such as bulkiness and weightiness. It seeks to replace them with a concise, lightweight, and portable device easily form-fitted to an application such as clothing with built-in/integrated wearable devices.

Patents

Provisional patent application 63/414,625 filed October 18, 2022.