TY - JOUR
T1 - Self-powered monitoring of repeated head impacts using time-dilation energy measurement circuit
AU - Feng, Tao
AU - Aono, Kenji
AU - Covassin, Tracey
AU - Chakrabartty, Shantanu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 IEEE.
PY - 2015/4/1
Y1 - 2015/4/1
N2 - Due to the current epidemic levels of sport-related concussions (SRC) in the U.S., there is a pressing need for technologies that can facilitate long-term and continuous monitoring of head impacts. Existing helmet-sensor technology is inconsistent, inaccurate, and is not economically or logistically practical for large-scale human studies. In this paper, we present the design of a miniature, battery-less, self-powered sensor that can be embedded inside sport helmets and can continuously monitor and store different spatial and temporal statistics of the helmet impacts. At the core of the proposed sensor is a novel time-dilation circuit that allows measurement of a wide-range of impact energies. In this paper an array of linear piezo-floating-gate (PFG) injectors has been used for self-powered sensing and storage of linear and rotational head-impact statistics. The stored statistics are then retrieved using a plug-and-play reader and has been used for offline data analysis. We report simulation and measurement results validating the functionality of the time-dilation circuit for different levels of impact energies. Also, using prototypes of linear PFG integrated circuits fabricated in a 0.5 μm CMOS process, we demonstrate the functionality of the proposed helmet-sensors using controlled drop tests.
AB - Due to the current epidemic levels of sport-related concussions (SRC) in the U.S., there is a pressing need for technologies that can facilitate long-term and continuous monitoring of head impacts. Existing helmet-sensor technology is inconsistent, inaccurate, and is not economically or logistically practical for large-scale human studies. In this paper, we present the design of a miniature, battery-less, self-powered sensor that can be embedded inside sport helmets and can continuously monitor and store different spatial and temporal statistics of the helmet impacts. At the core of the proposed sensor is a novel time-dilation circuit that allows measurement of a wide-range of impact energies. In this paper an array of linear piezo-floating-gate (PFG) injectors has been used for self-powered sensing and storage of linear and rotational head-impact statistics. The stored statistics are then retrieved using a plug-and-play reader and has been used for offline data analysis. We report simulation and measurement results validating the functionality of the time-dilation circuit for different levels of impact energies. Also, using prototypes of linear PFG integrated circuits fabricated in a 0.5 μm CMOS process, we demonstrate the functionality of the proposed helmet-sensors using controlled drop tests.
KW - Biomechanics
KW - concussion monitoring
KW - energy harvesting
KW - helmet sensors
KW - piezo-floating-gate (PFG) sensors
KW - self-powered sensors
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928949868&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/TBCAS.2015.2403864
DO - 10.1109/TBCAS.2015.2403864
M3 - Article
C2 - 25838527
AN - SCOPUS:84928949868
SN - 1932-4545
VL - 9
SP - 217
EP - 226
JO - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
JF - IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems
IS - 2
M1 - 7073668
ER -