OREANDA-NEWS. Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. and imec Holst Centre today announced that they have developed a wireless transceiver circuit for use in body area networks (BAN) for medical applications that adheres to the 400 MHz-band international standard.

While the subject of high expectations for medical applications, wireless monitoring of brainwaves or other vital signs has in the past required over a dozen milliwatts (mW) of electric power. Now, however, by optimizing the architecture and circuitry, Fujitsu Laboratories and imec Holst Centre have succeeded in reducing the electric power requirements of wireless transceiver front-ends, to just 1.6 mW when receiving data and 1.8 mW when transmitting.

This technology extends by approximately ten-fold the battery life of conventional sensor products used for patient monitoring. This cuts the frequency of battery replacement or recharges, lightens the burden on patients, and increases the work efficiency of medical practitioners.

Based on this joint research into wireless transceiver technology, Fujitsu Laboratories plans to apply it to non-medical uses, as well, such as to the monitoring of societal infrastructure, thereby further enhancing network front-end interface technologies.

Details of this technology were announced at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference 2014 (ISSCC 2014), which opened February 9 in San Francisco (ISSCC Presentation 9.7)