Electromagnetics-on-Clothing for Everything
ECE 595 Seminar Series
October 21, 2022
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Electromagnetics-on-Clothing for Everything: Hubs for Clothing-Integrated RF Wireless Power Transfer, Harvesting, Sensing, and Monitoring for Internet of Everything
Presenter: Dieff Vital
Abstract: The Internet of Everything (IoE) market is expected to reach more than 4.2 trillion dollars in 2030. This concept connects three crucial components: people, data, and things. Among the things related to people to generate data, we have smart clothing (including clothing accessories) that provide crucial personal insights for the bearer, or people who use/wear them. Smart clothing and accessories are known as “wearables,” for which an estimated market value is expected to reach $ 380.5B by 2028. The product segments (devices) analyzed in this market projection include bodywear, neckwear, headwear, wristwear, footwear, and eyewear. These body-worn devices are low-power sensor-equipped systems to provide real-time and continuous monitoring. In addition, the data modulation enables continuous communication between the smart wearable device and a remote receiver.
Furthermore, these body-worn devices can be wirelessly powered using RF signals. Wirelessly powered body-worn sensors and data modulation are hubs known as “electromagnetics-on-clothing (EoC Hubs)” for any IoE application. This presentation will focus on wirelessly powered EoCs (WP-EoCs), their powering methods, sensing mechanisms, and communication techniques. (1) The powering methods of state-of-the-art WP-EoCs include near-and far-field wireless RF power transfer and harvesting implemented on textiles to generate megawatts of power to continuously power sensors and modulation circuits. (2) The sensing mechanisms include detecting temperature, uric acid, pH, glucose, lactate, etc. (3) RFID-type communication enables the transfer of information remotely to necessary parties for assessment. In addition, the design and manufacturing process, testing in settings that emulate real-life applications, and a look into the future of these systems will be discussed.
Speaker bio: Dieff Vital is a Bridge-to-Faculty Postdoc Associate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UIC. His interests include RF systems on-textile, wireless power transfer and harvesting for the Internet of Things, and smart dressing solutions for electrochemical sensing and monitoring. His work yielded three patents, with one on a smart charging system, which enabled him to be awarded a 50k grant from the National Science Foundation. He was a recipient of the McKnight Dissertation Fellowship, and Vital received the Florida Academy of Sciences Al Hall Memorial Award. He has also received Third Place in the IMS2019 Student Design Competition and honorable mentions in IMS2019 and IMS2020 3MT Competitions. He is currently He was awarded an IRRP fellowship for engaging minority students in STEM activities, 2nd Place in the Best paper competition at the 2022 IEEE RFID-TA, and an IEEE AP-S Summer Research Scholarship. His research includes textile-based wireless power transfer and harvesting, smart solutions for continuous health monitoring of vital signs, and microwave sensing of the gut microbiome. Vital completed his PhD at Florida International University under the supervision of Prof.Shubhendu Bhardwaj and was co-advised by Prof. John Volakis.
Faculty host: Igor Paprotny, paptrotny@uic.edu
This lecture will also be available online; please contact department for login.
Date posted
Oct 19, 2022
Date updated
Oct 19, 2022