Low Power Passive Microsystems for Medication Compliance:
National Science Foundation CAREER Award

During clinical trials, it is important to know with certainty the patient's compliance to a medication regimen, because without it, the results cannot be interpreted accurately. Numerous direct and indirect methods are available for measuring patient adherence to medication regimens, but as documented in a recent JAMA review of medication adherence strategies, none have had a significant effect in determining the validity of compliance. The primary objective of the proposed work is to develop ultra-low power deep in-body communication passive microsystems for orally ingestible pills.

MRM on a Chip:
UF Research Opportunity SEED Fund

Development of a miniaturized chip-based platform for Magnetic Resonance Microscopy (MRM) of single biological cells. The significance of this research stems from the rich information content that can be obtained using MR techniques, which include the analysis for structural and conformational determination in chemistry and biology. The rich array of contrast variables obtained via MRM can be used to glean new information regarding cells themselves, and to use these data to interpret MR signals from macroscopic assemblies of cells i.e. MRI of tissues.

An Ultra-Low Power Wireless Neural Recording Implant
National Institute of Health (NIH)

Allow subjects to interact seamlessly with a variety of actuators and sensory devices through the expression of their voluntary brain activity. Develop new technologies for augmenting human performance by accessing the brain in real time and integrating the information into external devices

Selective Wireless-Adjustable Multiple-frequency Probe (SWAMP) Coil for MRI/S
National Institute of Health (NIH)

The goal of this research project is to develop a high sensitivity NMR, selective wirelessly-adjustable multiple-frequency probe (SWAMP) system, using an implanted coil, that can be used to non-invasively monitor the function in vivo of a tissue engineered construct, such as a pancreatic substitute. The probe design uses custom microchips fabricated to allow the automatic tuning and matching of the probe to any desired frequency (i.e. nuclear magnetic resonance frequency).

Integrated Power Converters
Intel Corporation

Power delivery systems for future generation of microprocessors must be capable of providing high step-down DC/DC voltage conversion from the system board supply plane, operate at higher power densities, cope with increasing dynamic loading and current slew rates (~ 100 A/ns), and achieve much tighter voltage tolerances (less than 10% in supply voltage variation) while dealing with the parasitic impedance of the power supply connections and components. This research aims to investigate the feasibility of a highly integrated DC-DC converters for future generation of processors.

Integrated Micronode Research
US AIR FORCE AFOSR

This research effort is proposed to define an ultra small low power radio transceiver integrated using a mainstream 65nm CMOS foundry logic process in an M&M sized µNode. The radio will support node to node communication at 20m separations, node to base station

Ultra-Miniature Power Management for Microsystem Platforms
US ARMY RESEARCH LABORATORY

This effort is aimed towards the development of highly-integrated power management systems for ultra-miniaturized microsystem platforms such as micro air vehicles and microrobots. The power system is based on advanced power converters that can sense and manage power from multiple power sources and appropriately deliver power to multiple output loads, each with different power requirements.

High-Speed Electrical Interconnects
IFC/MARCO, SRC, Texas Instruments

The goal for this project is to develop high-speed I/O integrated circuit modules to characterize and evaluate the performance of high frequency chip-to-substrate package interfaces and electrical communication links. The proposed tasks will also establish design metrics for both near term and long term I/O solutions.

For interested students

Dear applicant,

Our research area is in mixed-signal integrated circuit design mainly for biomedical applications, but we also work on power management and high-speed I/O blocks. Our group's typical areas of interest include:

• Biomedical Microsystems (wireless, RFID, CDRs, low power DSP, analog front ends)
• Power Management (high frequency buck and boost converters, controllers, battery and wireless chargers)
• High-speed IO (PLLs, DLLs, serial links)