Microwave companies have largely weathered the current recession with grace, thanks to steady military requirements and evolving communications markets. Those markets have offered microwave firms new opportunities supporting fourth-generation (4G) wireless systems, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and improvised-explosive-device (IED) detection. Yet high-frequency technology also is viewed as a solution for nontraditional markets, such as the medical and smart-grid areas, as a means of supporting reliable, high-data-rate wireless connectivity. These emerging needs translate into new opportunities for the RF and microwave companies that can meet technology and price requirements.

According to the report, “Telecommunications, IT, and Healthcare: Wireless Networks, Digital Healthcare and the Transformation of US Healthcare, 2009-2014” by Insight Research Corp., spending by the US healthcare industry on telecommunications services will grow at a compound rate of 10.2 percent over the forecast period. From $7.1 billion in 2009, healthcare-industry spending on telecommunications services is predicted to reach $11.6 billion in 2014. Emerging medical opportunities range from the treatment of tumors to determining the radiation effects of ingestible wireless devices. Currently, one of the broadest opportunities lies in wireless patient monitoring. For example, the Intel Health Guide is a patient-monitoring system that allows healthcare professionals to customize care, gather timely information about the status of their patients, and collect and prioritize data. It offers patients an intuitive way to have timely interaction with healthcare providers and receive relevant self-care education.

A clinical trial between Toumaz Technology Ltd. and Imperial College London currently features Toumaz’s Sensium-enabled “digital plaster” wireless body monitor. The focus of the trial will be to verify that the physiological data acquired by the digital plaster system within a clinical setting is equivalent to that acquired using the gold-standard monitors in current use (Fig. 1). The Sensium digital plaster is a disposable wireless device with a working lifetime of several days. It is based on Toumaz’s AMx semiconductor intellectual-property (IP) platform. Powered by thin batteries, body-worn Sensium-enabled monitors vow to deliver clinical-quality data. They intelligently integrate that data into an electronic medical record via a network built on Toumaz’s wireless operating and networking system, Nano Sensor Protocol (NSP).

Although such solutions offer convenience, they also can have tremendous emotional and financial impact. Last month, American Educational Telecommunications(AET) remotely diagnosed a baby’s heart murmur in real time using wireless technology, eliminating the need to transport the child to another facility. The baby’s pediatrician, Dr. Vasudevan, became concerned about an obvious heart murmur while performing a post-natal examination at Faith Regional Health Services in Norfolk, NE. To diagnose its severity, he requested a consultation with a pediatric cardiologist. Yet the closest pediatric cardiologist was in Omaha, NE—115 miles from Norfolk.

The doctors agreed to set up a telemedicine consultation utilizing a remote echocardiogram system connected to a mobile and wireless transmitting video-conferencing device, rather than transporting the baby (one of a set of triplets) to Omaha. Dr. Scott Fletcher, a cardiologist with the University of Nebraska Medical Center/Creighton University Medical Center, Joint Division of Pediatric Cardiology in Omaha, was able to view an ultrasound and provide immediate confirmation that it was neither life threatening nor lifestyle limiting. (A video, “Live Echocardiogram Diagnosis of Newborn’s Heart Defect,” can be viewed at www.aetmedical.net/Video.html.)

High-frequency innovations for military applications also find their way into medical markets. For instance, Advanced Image Enhancement (AIE) recently debuted image-enhancement technology for digital mammography in breast-cancer screening and diagnosis. The firm’s image-enhancement software leverages signal-processing technology originally developed to locate undersea mines for the US Navy. In a hospital, it allows physicians to extract more information from medical images by improving the clarity of abnormalities.

Among the wireless standards efforts being applied to the medical arena is ZigBee Health Care, an open standard for the secure monitoring and management of noncritical, low-acuity healthcare and wellness services. This standard, which fully supports IEEE 11073 devices, is designed to reduce patient care costs while improving care and quality of life for patients and consumers. Although ZigBee or IEEE 802.15.4 is often associated with home and industrial control, it faces competition in those areas from the EnOcean Alliance’s standard, which was formalized to provide self-powered wireless monitoring and control systems for sustainable buildings. Such applications fall under the smart-grid umbrella, which also is proving to be a profitable emerging market—largely because of recent stimulus funding.

The smart grid has several components. Paul Minton, CEO of California Eastern Laboratories, states, “We break smart grid into three chunks. The most visible chunk right now is the meter making the transition from what we call automatic meter reading (AMR)—one-way wireless from the meter to read it either to a truck or some kind of wireless backhaul—and now the transition to advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), which is two-way. That enables the second chunk we think of, which is the home-area network. Both of these require the third chunk, which is the backhaul or smart utility network (SUN).”

Minton sees energy monitoring within the home as a promising growth area for wireless technology: “We see experimentation with customers that are building the kind of wireless, battery-operated, magnetic, mount-to-your-refrigerator home-energy monitor—what we might call nodes or end points so that you would have intelligent control of a socket, say, for a lamp or the light and in the future perhaps the ability to turn on or turn off appliances.” Rich Howell, Director of Business Development for CEL’s 802.15.4 and ZigBee product lines, adds, “We do have a number of ZigBee Pro devices that are shipping today in thousands of units per month and sometimes tens of thousands of units per month that go into smart thermostats, in-home displays—as Paul articulated, something that attaches with a magnet to the refrigerator with an LCD on it that tells the consumer, ‘You’re halfway through the month and you’re on par to reach a $300 electricity bill this month, which is well above normal’ or ‘Congratulations, you’re well below your normal usage rate.’”

The ability for consumers to manage their own utility bills also is a focus of the Edison Electric Institute. The institute recently spotlighted Baltimore Gas & Electric’s (BGE’s) smart-energy pricing pilot program, in which customers have been able to manage electricity use in direct response to price signals. According to Lisa Wood, Executive Director of the Institute for Electric Efficiency, BGE first installed advanced interval metering for approximately 1050 residential customers so the utility could communicate prices directly. It decided to test dynamic peak pricing (DPP) and peak-time rebate (PTR, which is between 2:00 and 7:00 pm on weekdays). By 6:00 pm the day before a critical peak pricing day, the utility sent out a notice by e-mail, telephone, or text message.

Alternatively, the utility tested two systems that automatically respond to the day-ahead price notification: a device that automatically cycles the air conditioner when the price changes and an energy orb, which is a spherical device inside the home that changes color and pulsates when the price is about to change (Fig. 2). The orb used a publicly available very-high-frequency (VHF) paging network. It currently only receives messages and does not have the capability to send outbound messages. In the future, BGE plans to test in-home displays that operate off more robust two-way mesh networks, such as ZigBee and other AMI technologies.

To support such capabilities, RF designers must develop secure and robust smart meters capable of wireless data transmission over short distances. According to Phillip Halford, Product Manager of Analog Devices’ RF Group, “Wireless technology is becoming more pervasive as a mechanism to control and monitor energy as well as control home and business systems. Short-range RF transceivers offering robust radio performance are paramount for these applications.” For examples of products that can support such applications, Halford points to ADF7022 and ADF7023 RF transceivers (Fig. 3). The ADF7022’s integrated communications processor supports the io-homecontrol protocol, which enables homeowners to remotely control systems like roller blinds and shutters, awnings, garage doors, roof windows, and heating systems.

As solar nodes are increasingly deployed for power generation, they will become part of the smart grid as well. To make sure that solar panels are working effectively, each one requires isolation for accurate monitoring. In addition, the output level must be reported to a master control point. According to CEL’s Minton, a lot of this reporting is currently done via wired control. For each individual panel, there is a clear opportunity for isolation and wireless monitoring and control.

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