COMMUNICATION SOLUTIONS

Wireless System Keeps All EYES on the Patient

Low-power, compact wireless systems are opening up a whole new raft of applications in medical electronics. Platforms such as the EU-funded EYES project provide an architecture that can be used in a wide variety of such environments.

Medical electronics has taken massive strides over recent years, driven not only by increasing processing power, but also miniaturisation and improved communications. As the trend continues away from hospital admission and towards primary care, wireless communication looks likely to be the next major area of development for such devices and systems.

Wireless is an attractive technology in this context because it allows continuous- and home-monitoring of recovering, vulnerable or chronically-ill patients; ambulatory patients can also be monitored and treated with less inconvenience and risk. Further into the future, wireless may also be used to push the boundaries even further, allowing telemedicine, swallowable cameras, self-monitoring implants and innovative medical instruments.



Key to such developments will be platforms such as EYES (EnergY-Efficient wireless Sensor), an architecture and technology for a new generation of self-organising wireless sensor networks, developed by a consortium including Infineon.

Designers can use EYES to implement basic networking capabilities quickly and easily. The protocol uses Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) to reduce collisions and hence cut power consumption by minimising data resends. Also, using the lower ISM frequency bands allows operation over relatively long distances of up to hundreds of metres, when compared to systems working in the Gigahertz range.

To help engineers evaluate EYES solutions, Infineon also offers an EYES evaluation kit containing five network nodes and a CD with operating system, basic network protocol stacks and development environment.

EYES is the latest in Infineon’s wide portfolio of products aimed at medical applications. These range from RFID for tracking of medications, to power and sensor systems for motorised cardiovascular operations such as catheter pullback. The company also produces a range of Hall sensors, DC-DC converters and microcontrollers.

Infineon’s medical customers also benefit from the company’s excellent reputation for reliability and quality, and its understanding of the long product lifetimes required in medical applications.

EYES Features

• Self-organising wireless sensor networks
• Open node design
• Open-source software
  • Operating system
  • Linux-based development environment
• Free choice of wireless standards and protocols
• Automatic network reconfiguration
• Transmission range of a few hundred metres
• Data rate of 19Kbit/s
• Low power consumption

For further information, including the Infineon EYES Sensor Network Development Kit Documentation, please click here