Integrating Ultrasound Technology into a Fitness Tracking Device (1M, 2 B/S)
From iis-projects
Contents
Short Description
Ultrasound is a key technology in healthcare, and it is being explored for non-invasive, wearable, continuous monitoring of vital signs. However, its widespread adoption in this scenario is still hindered by the size, complexity, and power consumption of current devices. Moreover, such an application demands adaptability to human anatomy, which is hard to achieve with current transducer technology. In this work, we develop strategies and prototypes to advance ultrasound into a wrist-worn application, e.g. for monitoring vital signs.
Status: Available
- Looking for 1 Master or 2 Semester students
- Contact: Christoph Leitner (iis), Marco Giordano (pbl)
Prerequisites
- Creativity and solid research methodology (highly appreciated).
- Showing participation in non-curricular analog/digital projects is a big plus.
- Circuit design tools (e.g., Altium Designer).
- Knowledge of MCU programming as well as mixed-signal and RF design know-how is an advantage.
Character
- 40% Hardware design
- 30% Firmware programming
- 10% Characterization and testing
- 20% Data analyses and documentation
Professor
Detailed Task Description
The focus of this work is to support the development of an ultrasound technology and its adaptation to a wrist-worn application. Depending on the level of the student and the type of work chosen (B/S/M), the work will include some or all of the following tasks:
Goals
Characterization
- Fabrication of transducers on flexible substrate
- VNA measurements of transducers
- Matching circuit design
Hardware Design
- Design of an evaluation board for an existing TX and RX circuit prototype.
- Integration of an ARM Cortex microcontroller as control unit for TX and RX.
- TX pulse tuning (based on the STHVUP32, STMicroelectronics) to optimise acoustic power transmission.
- Optimisation of the RX circuit (Amps and filters) for best possible amplification at reduced bandwidth and power consumption.
- Design proposal for an optimized and integrated TX and RX circuit.
Firmware
- Programming of an ARM Cortex MCU as the control unit for the ultrasonic TX and RX stages.
Testing
- Insertion loss
- System power consumption
Practical Details
