ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two case studies illustrating the utilization of low-power design techniques, both being relevant to personal healthcare and medical research. The first one is concerned with the implementation of monitoring devices incorporating several parallel sensing channels, such devices being specifically applicable to brain–computer interfacing technology. The second case study centres on the broad and increasingly active area of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and, more specifically, on the wake-up radio (WUR) concept that allows an autonomous device to remain in deep sleep until needed, when it can then be woken up by a specific radio frequency signal received through a passive radio. Foregoing the need to have the network maintain a communication schedule, each node is equipped with an ultra-low-power WUR that continuously monitors the channel. Autonomous implants within the human body that serve to capture data or to stimulate cells are essentially specialized sensor nodes, whether or not they are networked.
