Paulo M. Mendes

By Hugo Dinis and Paulo M. Mendes

Implantable electronic devices are undergoing a miniaturization age, becoming more efficient and yet more powerful as well. Biomedical sensors are used to monitor a multitude of physiological parameters, such as glucose levels, blood pressure and neural activity. A group of sensors working together in the human body is the main component of a body area network, which is a wireless sensor network applied to the human body. In this chapter, applications of wireless biomedical sensors are presented, along with state-of-the-art communication and powering mechanisms of these devices. Furthermore, recent integration methods that allow the sensors to become smaller and more suitable for implantation are summarized. For individual sensors to become a body area network (BAN), they must form a network and work together. Issues that must be addressed when developing these networks are detailed and, finally, mobility methods for implanted sensors are presented.

Part of the book: Wireless Sensor Networks

By Bassem Jmai, Adnen Rajhi, Paulo Mendes and Ali Gharsallah

This chapter intends to deal with the challenging field of communication systems known as reconfigurable radio-frequency systems. Mainly, it will present and analyze the design of different reconfigurable components based on radio-frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) for different applications. This chapter will start with the description of the attractive properties that RF MEMS structures offer, giving flexibility in the RF systems design, and how these properties may be used for the design of reconfigurable RF MEMS-based devices. Then, the chapter will discuss the design, modeling, and simulation of reconfigurable components based on both theoretical modeling and well-known electromagnetic computing tools such as ADS, CST-MWS, and HFSS to evaluate the performance of such devices. Finally, the chapter will deal with the design and performance assessment of RF MEMS-based devices. Non-radiating devices, such as phase shifter and resonators, which are very important components in the hardware RF boards, will be addressed. Also, three types of frequency reconfigurable antennas, for the three different applications (radar, satellite, and wireless communication), will be proposed and evaluated. From this study, based on theoretical design and electromagnetic computing evaluation, it has been shown that RF MEMS-based devices can be an enabling solution in the design of the multiband reconfigurable radio-frequency devices.

Part of the book: MEMS Sensors