NSF Award
0956908
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project continues the development of a new class of wireless miniature smart sensor labels that continuously track and record exposure to the environmental conditions, and directly store the sensed data in digital CMOS non volatile memory (NVM) without requiring any battery. These CMOS-sensor chips are able to track temperature (-50°C to 70°C), humidity (5% to 100% RH), and shock/impact (50g to 250g), in a total volume of less than 1.5mm x 1.5mm x 0.7mm. The CMOS-sensor chip can be embedded in a standard passive radio frequency identification (RFID) inlay to form a fully integrated multi-sensor environmental condition tracking wireless device that is able to be deployed in a scalable RFID network. A multi-faceted innovative approach in MEMS devices and digital non-volatile memories enables the proposed CMOS-sensor chip. The temperature and humidity sensors fabricated and micropackage processes developed in Phase-I successfully demonstrate the technical feasibility and commercial viability of the proposed wireless smart sensor labels. The outcome of the proposed effort meets the form factor, functionality, and price-point requirements of embedded and widely-dispersed sensing, in a broad range of applications.<br/><br/>The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is on several existing industries, larger and more significant impacts on new markets and industries to be formed around this innovative and powerful technical ability. We believe that the existing live/bio material delivery segment can generate up to $500 million yearly sales for Evigia based on our technology directly reducing up to $1.4 billion of vaccine potency destruction each year, and saving up to $150 million yearly of blood plasma being destroyed during transportation. Commercial delivery logistics of sensitive/high-value goods and fresh produce is another large existing market where we can bring direct benefit up to $5 billion yearly in the US based on our smaller, lower cost, batteryless solution being included to monitor shipping quality in a far larger fraction of all packages being shipped in the US. The underlying technology of the proposed effort could be also potentiality employed in development of a broader family of advanced systems including improved diagnosis and treatment of mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) which affects millions of Americans annually through sports and other accidental injuries.
