Multi-technical coordinated development brings portable medical spring to a close

Google Glass, Apple smartwatch and Samsung's Galaxy Gear have raised people's awareness of wearable devices, and wearable devices are expected to explode in the next few years, reaching $19 billion by 2018. The rapid development of this industry will bring huge opportunities, especially in the fields of medical care, fitness, sports and communications.

　　Mobile healthcare is an important application field of wearable smart devices. According to the forecast of BCC Research, the mobile healthcare market will grow from US$9.8 billion in 2010 to US$23 billion in 2015, with a compound growth rate of 18.6%. As the craze for wearable electronic devices, mobile healthcare, and the Internet of Things is overwhelming, business opportunities and challenges coexist. For example, "mobile healthcare" requires mobile terminal devices, software applications, network support, cloud servers, and even big data support, which are not something that can be solved by a single hospital or a single manufacturer. However, the relevant technologies have gradually matured, and the market acceptance of mobile medical products has also begun to increase. In particular, the popularization of Bluetooth 4.0, the innovation of Internet of Things technology and related chip technologies have greatly promoted the development of mobile healthcare.

　　In new consumer healthcare devices, MEMS sensors and actuators cover the intelligent sensing or actions of most devices; low-power microcontrollers can control devices using extremely low power, making them more portable, and wireless transceivers enable devices to communicate with each other. It can be said that the rapid development of semiconductor technology is redefining the healthcare industry.

　　Hetai: Portable medical devices will be the focus in the future

　　Portable medical devices for diagnosing health problems in and outside of a physician's office or hospital are rapidly increasing. Portable healthcare devices help medical professionals monitor vital signs, restore heart beats, and use ultrasound to check internal body conditions before sending patients to the hospital. The goal of portable medical devices is to provide easy-to-use, interoperable, and diagnostically valuable home healthcare devices. This avoids hospital visits and reduces medical costs. Patients can also use portable medical devices at home to monitor blood pressure, vital capacity, blood sugar levels, and record heart conditions. Portable medical systems cover a wide range of applications, including blood pressure monitoring, blood glucose meters, pulse oximeters, and ultrasound applications, and market demand is expanding.

　　Mr. Tsai Rong-tsung of Holtech Semiconductor said at Holtech's "2013 New Product Launch Conference" that the company's operating target this year is NT$3.8 billion, an increase from last year's NT$3.56 billion. The main growth area is mainland China, of which South China accounts for more than 50%. Holtech is very optimistic about the market for portable medical devices such as portable electronic blood pressure monitors and portable blood glucose meters, which will be Holtech's focus next year.

Rongzong Cai, Holtek Semiconductor

　　Maxim: Health monitoring accelerates the arrival of the first year of wearable smart devices

　　The huge market demand for health monitoring is vigorously promoting the rapid development of wearable smart medical monitoring devices. At present, health monitoring and fitness applications have become the "killer" applications in wearable computing technology.

　　In response to the huge emerging market of mobile healthcare, as early as September 2012, Maxim introduced a new type of repeatedly washable vital signs monitoring suit (Fit), which enables professional medical staff to frequently monitor patients' physical condition at low cost and provide more effective preventive medical care. The highly integrated monitoring suit design can be used to measure three-lead ECG, body temperature and movement status, and in the future it can also measure ECG with more leads (5 to 12). All diagnostic tools have been integrated into the shirt without affecting the wearing comfort. The new "Fit" integrates dry electrode ECG measurement technology, complex signal processing technology, temperature sensor, motion sensor, ultra-low power microcontroller and wireless communication unit.

　　Steve LaJeunesse, market application manager of Maxim Medical Devices, said that the integration of multiple technologies such as ultra-low power analog measurement circuits, complex signal processing technology, and ultra-low power microcontrollers is the development trend of wearable smart devices.

Steve LaJeunesse, Marketing Application Manager, Maxim Medical Devices

　　Bluetooth SIG: Bluetooth 4.0 will be used in wearable electronic devices

　　After mainstream operating systems such as iOS, Android and Windows have successively supported Bluetooth 4.0 functions, the new generation of mobile devices will massively introduce Bluetooth 3.0/4.0 dual-mode Smart Ready solutions, which will in turn stimulate the accelerated upgrade of wearable electronic products or mobile medical devices on the device side to Bluetooth Smart specifications. The demand for related certification is growing at an alarming rate.

　　Hundreds of new Bluetooth products have been launched this year, including home automatic locks, pedometers, fitness sensors, footballs, shoes, medical devices, and even flower trays, all of which use Bluetooth Smart ultra-low energy technology. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

　　He Genfei, director of the Bluetooth SIG Developer Program, pointed out that the application of Bluetooth 4.0 will expand to mobile medical, wearable electronic devices, sports and fitness markets. In the future, it is expected to accelerate the popularization of Bluetooth sensors in the sports and fitness fields.

He Genfei, Director of Developer Programs at Bluetooth SIG

　　Texas Instruments: The wearable device boom contains new business opportunities for apps

　　With the rise of mobile apps, personalized mobile healthcare has entered our lives. Although this field is still in its infancy, it has great potential. Powerful scientific and technological forces have triggered a revolution in the medical and health system: increasingly advanced sensors and equipment, increasingly cheap personal genome technology, and a growing mobile application market allow consumers to take charge of their own medical care and become CEOs of their own health. According to data from market research firm Research and Markets, by 2017, more than half of the world's 3.4 billion mobile users will install medical and health applications on their mobile devices.

　　Driven by the expected surge in shipments of smart mobile and wearable devices, data analysis and App applications based on sensor design are gaining new vitality. Riding the trend of low-power Bluetooth 4.0, and with Android 4.3 and iOS operating systems as the strong backing of Bluetooth 4.0, Texas Instruments (TI) is actively deploying the APPs software product development market. With the increasing number of mobile devices supporting low-power Bluetooth 4.0 technology, Texas Instruments has targeted this market opportunity and launched the industry's first SensorTag low-power Bluetooth development tool with a built-in TI CC2541 low-power Bluetooth chip.

　　Wu Jianhong, MCU & WCS business development manager at Texas Instruments, said that the benefit of SensorTag is that it allows users to easily and quickly design sensor-based applications and apps, which will help promote the popularization and application of Bluetooth technology.

Wu Jianhong, MCU & WCS Business Development Manager, Texas Instruments

　　STMicroelectronics: Wireless/sensing technology helps smart healthcare

　　Although semiconductors have been used in healthcare equipment for more than 40 years, the proportion of semiconductors in medical electronic equipment is still small, because hospitals and clinics are the main users of medical equipment. However, with the increasing popularity of microelectronics technology, in many countries and regions around the world, the traditional medical electronics market is developing into a broader and faster-growing healthcare market, allowing people to take more responsibility for their own health care.

　　Semiconductor technology is bringing about major changes in two aspects. First, the performance of traditional medical equipment is being continuously improved, from low-tech hospital beds to high-tech MRI detection equipment. Like all industrial applications, these improvements benefit from the universal win-win effect of semiconductor technology, which has led to continuous improvement in medical equipment in terms of price, performance, power consumption, size, etc. Second, semiconductor technology is also essentially redefining the healthcare industry, driving and simplifying the healthcare industry from hospital or outpatient medical methods to cloud-based medical services that can provide medical services anytime, anywhere.

　　Semiconductor technology is driving changes in the healthcare industry. Thanks to the efforts of semiconductor companies, the performance of MEMS sensors and actuators, low-power microcontrollers, and wireless transceivers has been continuously improved, and power consumption has been greatly reduced, which helps electronic product manufacturers add intelligent functions to portable medical electronic devices, thereby accelerating the development of mobile medical and remote care.

Henghua Ji, Executive Vice President and President of STMicroelectronics Greater China and South Asia

　　Conclusion:

　　The new trend of wearable smart devices is that the technology industry seems to be highly optimistic about the prospects of the wearable smart device market. Not only are IT giants such as Apple, Samsung, Google, and Baidu keen on this, but consumer brand manufacturers such as Sony and Nike are also competing to invest in the research and development of wearable devices. Moreover, semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel, TI, Qualcomm, STMicroelectronics, Maxim, and Holtek are also targeting this field. We believe that there will be more smart watches, fitness monitors, shoes, and headphones appearing in the wearable market in the future, among which portable medical devices will be a very important market area. According to market research firm ABI, by 2017, the global market size of health and fitness wearable devices is expected to reach 170 million units.

　　Semiconductor manufacturers have integrated many technologies such as sensors, computing, communications and power management into electronic circuits, and perfectly integrated low-power products and wireless connection technologies into their products, which has greatly promoted the great changes in portable medical devices. At this stage, although there are still many problems with portable medical devices, with technological breakthroughs, cost reductions, and the perfect application of cloud computing and big data, the popularization of portable medical devices is gradually approaching.