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WKetel
I agree with "Sharps", and I would offer that in addition to sounding quite a ...
bcarso
Fundamental noise limitations from a small-geometry FET will limit the ...
Plessey signs to make 'disruptive' sensor
Peter Clarke
11/11/2010 8:15 AM EST
Medical and sports
Most places on Earth have a vertical electric field of about 100 volts per meter. The human body is mostly water and this interacts with the electric field. EPS technology is so sensitive that it can detect these changes at a distance and even through a solid wall. Thus, for example, in a fire situation, it could be possible to determine if there any people in a smoke filled room before opening the door.
The initial application areas for EPS will be in medical and sports. Key to this is that EPS detects the voltage change in muscles and nerves without electrical contact so there is no need to have electrodes on or in the body to detect current changes.
The initial sensors were hand-made by the University of Sussex to test and improve the EPS technology. These are currently the size of a small coin. Plessey Semiconductors will be developing and manufacturing next generation, silicon based sensors at its facility in Roborough, England. Plessey will integrate discrete components into a system on chip solution with appropriate microcontrollers and software.
The next phase to be developed by Plessey and Sussex will be multi-element sensor arrays that will enable 3-D video imaging to be created with effectively each sensor geneating a pixel of information, which will open up broader application areas.
Michael LeGoff, CEO of Plessey Semiconductors, concluded, "This is just the sort of innovative, completely new technology that made Plessey Semiconductors famous. We have only just begun to imagine the products that can be designed to use the unique sensing capability of EPS. It is tremendous that two British organizations are working together on a genuinely disruptive technology that can deliver products that were previously not possible and in the realms of science fiction."
Video demos of potential applications can be found at http://vimeo.com/channels/142550
Most places on Earth have a vertical electric field of about 100 volts per meter. The human body is mostly water and this interacts with the electric field. EPS technology is so sensitive that it can detect these changes at a distance and even through a solid wall. Thus, for example, in a fire situation, it could be possible to determine if there any people in a smoke filled room before opening the door.
The initial application areas for EPS will be in medical and sports. Key to this is that EPS detects the voltage change in muscles and nerves without electrical contact so there is no need to have electrodes on or in the body to detect current changes.
The initial sensors were hand-made by the University of Sussex to test and improve the EPS technology. These are currently the size of a small coin. Plessey Semiconductors will be developing and manufacturing next generation, silicon based sensors at its facility in Roborough, England. Plessey will integrate discrete components into a system on chip solution with appropriate microcontrollers and software.
The next phase to be developed by Plessey and Sussex will be multi-element sensor arrays that will enable 3-D video imaging to be created with effectively each sensor geneating a pixel of information, which will open up broader application areas.
Michael LeGoff, CEO of Plessey Semiconductors, concluded, "This is just the sort of innovative, completely new technology that made Plessey Semiconductors famous. We have only just begun to imagine the products that can be designed to use the unique sensing capability of EPS. It is tremendous that two British organizations are working together on a genuinely disruptive technology that can deliver products that were previously not possible and in the realms of science fiction."
Video demos of potential applications can be found at http://vimeo.com/channels/142550
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DrQuine
11/11/2010 1:31 PM EST
This new technology sounds like it has "electrical potential". How will the sensors distinguish the voltage of interest from other ambient voltages in remote sensing applications? It sounds like these sensors are inexpensive enough to be used to monitor multiple subsystems. What is the expected price point?
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peter.clarke
11/12/2010 7:02 AM EST
Hi Dr Quine
I was fortunate enough to see an impressive demonstration of the technology at a press event at Electronica. It would seem that in "remote" sensing it might be possible to "confuse" the sensor....so muscles firing could mask the presence of heart beat for example. Professor Prance actually demonstrated that while holding a sensor in each hand.
But the ability to create 1- and 2-D arrays of sensors and intelligent application-specific systems architectures should get round most problems.
As to price; as Plessey has yet to do any of the monolithic or monopackage integration I am sure their executives would say it is too early to give an indication on price. But fundamentally i don't see any reason why the sensor itself should cost more than a few dollars/pounds/euros.
But if you are replacing expensive medical monitoring equipment it would be natural to want to price to value created rather than to the cost of manufacture!
In sports and human-machine interface applications the prices may have to be lower anyway.
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yalanand
11/11/2010 5:01 PM EST
Wow, this is exciting techonology. I can imagine so many numerous applications. Just imagine somebody comes and tells your health report without even you visiting doctor, seems crazy.
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sharps_eng
11/11/2010 6:21 PM EST
This sounds like a refinement of analog 'bootstrapping' to raise apparent input impedance. Effectiveness depends on how accurately the incoming signal can be modelled in the feedback circuit (so as to match it and oppose it) and also how well interfering signals can be nulled out. No doubt the research work has worthwhile applications, but I hope this isn't a lot of marketing types getting over-excited about a relatively incremental development?
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bcarso
11/13/2010 12:13 PM EST
Fundamental noise limitations from a small-geometry FET will limit the effectiveness, feedback techniques or not. In particular higher bandwidths will be difficult. However, that's not to say it couldn't be useful, particularly in arrays with plenty of signal processing. And the reproducibility as an integrated part will be greatly advantageous compared to discrete realizations.
I had a recent occasion to be reminded of the prevalence of electric fields in the local environment, when the aluminum can housing an electret "condenser" mic capsule went open-circuit and ceased to shield the input circuit, which typically has a local gate resistor of a few hundred megohms and a small JFET, which pretty much sets the low-frequency electrical response cutoff. The result was a loud hum/buzz in the audio. I use the mic to remotely monitor the sounds at the front door, so that I don't miss a mail delivery or similar.
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WKetel
11/24/2010 9:35 AM EST
I agree with "Sharps", and I would offer that in addition to sounding quite a bit like the analog "bootstrapping" technique, which I saw explained in the late 1960's as a means of improving transistor circuit input impedances, charge amplifier circuits have also been around for quite a while.
Of course, if they have come up with a means of rejecting the ambient background field well enough to deliver the described performance, that is quite an accomplishment indeed, and very worthy of acclaim.
But I am more likely to consider the development in light of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which reduces to the assertion that "measuring a quantity has an effect on that quantity", and this usually introduces some error.
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