HMicro Inc and STMicroelectronics have joined hands to launch the industry’s first single-chip solution for clinical grade, disposable smart patches as well as biosensors. The developed product has been termed as HC1100 and aims at replacing wires for devices like vital sign monitors and electrocardiograms, thereby targeting 5 billion wired wearable sensors being utilised annually. Discussing both the entities, former is a wireless solution developer that caters to the need of wireless peripherals and complex biosensor applications, whereas the latter is a global semiconductor leader facilitating the requirements for a wide spectrum of electronic projects. 

 

 

This one-chip solution is the very first product to be based on WiPoint technology and purpose-built silicon platform that has been jointly designed by both the companies. Discussing the configuration of HC1100, it embeds 3 ultra-power radios for Wi-Fi, ultra-wideband, and Medical Band (MBAN), ARM Cortex MO application processor, 352KB RAM, multiple sensor interfaces as well as power management circuits- all on a single chip. 

 

The ARM Cortex architecture makes the best use of ST’s ultra low power design technology and wireless connectivity IP for a successful long operation without any worry. Moreover, the multi-sensor interfaces support monitoring of blood oxygen levels, heart rate, etc. It also interfaces with MEMS microphones and motion sensors that are further used for detecting patients’ behavior through activity recognition.

 

The patent protected specifications of HC1100 efficiently meet all the key requirements for mission critical products and functions demanding high reliability via a strong wireless connection which is suitable for ensuring high sensor-data accuracy. Not only it complies with all the standards, but it’s also quite economical and optimized. Apart from serving these needs, this technology is intended to be deployed for many other high volume clinical as well as industrial IoT applications.