How Bluetooth 5.0 and Energy Harvesting Technologies Impact the Medical Electronics Market

By SRINIVAS PATTAMATTA, VP of Business Development at Atmosic

The Internet of Things has transformed the healthcare industry.

Medical facilities and hospitals are using IoT devices for a wide range of applications, including providing wearable medical devices to patients as an easy way to monitor their vital signs from anywhere. Additionally, connected beacons can be used to track patients’ whereabouts throughout the hospital, an important function for large venues. These types of solutions are especially useful given that the healthcare industry is facing staffing shortages.

While advancements in medical technology are exciting, there are still many challenges with using battery-powered connected devices in medical applications. The cost of replacing batteries can quickly add up, in addition to the fact that when batteries are improperly thrown away, hazardous materials can leach into the environment. Fortunately, over the past few years, new technologies have emerged that have greatly extended the battery life of medical wearables, and have even enabled some medical devices to work without any batteries at all.

One way connected devices can extend battery life is by using low-power radios that support the latest Bluetooth 5.0 standard. Bluetooth 5.0 can extend the battery life of connected devices by reducing power consumption by 5-10 times. This allows devices to work more efficiently. In addition, energy harvesting technology can be used to significantly extend the battery life of IoT applications. Energy harvesting is the process of capturing and storing small amounts of energy from external energy sources (such as RF, photovoltaics, thermal energy, and motion), which is then converted into electrical energy to replace or supplement the battery.

By combining circuit-level and system-level innovations, it is possible to reduce power consumption to such low levels that energy harvesting becomes a truly viable power driver. This type of energy harvesting technology is designed for situations where microwatts of active power and microwatts of average power are used in low duty cycle applications. Energy harvested from the environment can provide a regular small current to the battery so that the device can operate longer between charges, thus extending the battery life to the entire life of the device. Even more exciting is that there are applications that can completely utilize ambient energy obtained from the environment and do not require any batteries to operate.

Wearable devices with energy harvesting capabilities are ideal for non-critical patient monitoring, such as badges or wristbands that integrate sensors to capture vital information about the human body and share data via Bluetooth. In some cases, patients can even go home with monitoring devices, and medical staff can continue to track their vital signs.

Another interesting use case for wearable medical devices is continuous glucose monitoring, a measurement method that tracks the real-time effects of food and exercise on blood sugar levels. A continuous glucose monitor (CGM) requires a sensor to be inserted under the skin to continuously measure blood sugar readings day and night. A wireless transmitter connects to the sensor via Bluetooth and sends blood sugar levels to a display device that shows the user's blood sugar level and alerts the patient when blood sugar levels are too low or too high. The challenge with traditional CGM applications is that the transmitter, pump, and charger batteries need to be charged regularly as they are all in constant use.

This problem can be solved by using controllable energy harvesting technology, which can extend the battery life. This means that a CGM using energy harvesting does not need to be charged throughout the life of the device, and the battery does not need to be replaced. A CGM with permanent battery life can help patients relax because they don't have to worry about the device battery running low and losing important health information. In addition, devices that support Bluetooth 5.0 can enable remote monitoring. Bluetooth 5.0 can increase the connection range to four times that of the previous generation of Bluetooth, allowing doctors to monitor patients from a greater distance through a browser or smartphone application.

By extending the battery life of medical wearables, both patients and practitioners can use these important connected applications more effectively without having to worry about losing critical information due to battery depletion. In addition, extended battery life reduces battery maintenance costs and helps reduce environmental waste.

About the Author

Srinivas has over 20 years of experience in wireless and other communications technologies. He has worked in mobile, computing, consumer electronics, IoT, including various business development and marketing roles at Synaptics, Qualcomm, Atheros, and NXP. He is an entrepreneur and has owned and operated Skyscape Aviation. Srinivas received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University and his MBA from Santa Clara University.