Welcome to the WiS Lab
@ Toronto Metropolitan University
Wireless Sensing
Wireless medical sensors represent one of today’s disruptive technologies that have significantly improved the quality of life of patients, especially those affected by chronic conditions. Compared to wired sensors, wireless sensors allow for long-term continuous health monitoring without affecting patients’ daily activities. In the last decade we have witnessed significant clinical adoption of wearable sensors, including ECG patches and glucose monitors, which have resulted in more efficient chronic disease management.
In the context of implantable devices, a number of wireless sensors have recently been introduced (e.g. loop recorders and pressure sensors), that supplement the functionality of existing implants in cardiac patients. These sensors are however limited to either collecting and storing data that is later analyzed by health professional or require significant patient’s compliance. The single-parameter nature of such sensors further limits their scope.
Current clinical needs call for the development of minimally-invasive multimodal wireless sensor networks, that can capture clinically-relevant parameters and provide real-time predictive monitoring of a patient’s condition. This ambition presents a number of interesting technical challenges, related to the size, functionality, connectivity and powering of these sensor networks, that require innovative and sustainable solutions.
Latest News
o Apr 2024. The WiS Lab and Fertilead (fertilead.com) awarded a Mitacs Accelerate grant to develop a medical device to enahnce fertility treatments.
o Apr 2024. MSc student Noah Becker joins the WiS Lab as a visiting student from Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Welcome Noah!
o Sept 2023. Irene (MASc in BME), Quentin (MASc in EE) and Diego (MEng in BME) join the WiS Lab! Welcome All!
o Aug 2023. Our paper entitled “Inductively-Coupled MEMS Pressure Sensor” accepted for presentation at the 2023 IEEE BioCAS conference in Toronto in October!
o Aug 2023. Our poster entitled “Miniaturized Silicon Coils for Chip-Scale Medical Implants” has been accepted for presentation at the 2023 IEEE BSN in Boston in October!
o July 2023. The WiS Lab will be at IEEE 2023 EMBC in Sydney, Australia, with 3 papers!
o May 2023. The WiS Lab awarded the 2023 The Peter & Judith Bowie Advancing Women in STEM Program fund to support a TMU female-identifying incoming first-year graduate student for one year.
o Apr 2023. Hanieh’s paper entitled ‘A Time-based CMOS Readout Circuit for Amperometric Biosensors’ accepted at the 2023 IEEE Prime conference in Valencia! Well done Hanieh!
o Sept 2022. Rushae Smith (BSc Wilfrid Laurier) joins the WiS Lab as a MASc student. Welcome Shae!
…more news
About the WiS Lab
The Wireless Sensing (WiS) Lab works on the design and development of mm-scale CMOS-MEMS sensing devices to complement implantable devices for efficient management of chronic diseases. The lab was founded in 2020 by Dr. Virgilio “Vivo” Valente, who is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University* University. The Lab combines research activities in microelectronics, MEMS fabrication and wireless power and data transfer. Our research activities are centered on 3 main areas:
o Ultra-low-power CMOS wireless sensor readout circuits
o Wireless powering and CMOS-MEMS energy harvesters
o Monolithic integration of MEMS sensors, CMOS circuits and microfluidic structures
The Lab has expertise in many domains, including mixed-mode CMOS circuit design, sensor modeling, design and characterization, wireless power and data transfer, CMOS post-processing, MEMS design and fabrication. The Lab’s research activities are currently supported by the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Mitacs. Read more.
*Formerly Ryerson University
We currently have fully-funded opportunities for domestic MASc and PhD students in the field of IC design, BioMEMS and wireless sensing.
Current Projects
o Nanowatt multichannel wireless CMOS potentiostat with time-based readout for wearable and implantable biosensors. This project builds on previous activities on the development of low-power wireless potentiostats. We recently designed a wireless dual-slope PHM-based potentiostat that could achieve 12uW/channel and a resolution of 10 pARMS (TCAS-II 2019). In this project we are developing techniques to further reduce both power and area consumption while increasing the resolution and the number of channels to support the development of energy-harvesting multiplexed biosensors.
o Time-based CMOS impedance analyzer for bioimpedance and electrical impedance spectroscopy application. Synchronous demodulation is the industry standard for real-time impedance measurement. This method provides high resolution but at the cost of high power consumption. In this project we explore alternative methods to measure impedance using time-based readouts. Currently we are developing a model of a single-channel time-based impedance readout and investigating its theoretical performance.
o Inductive MEMS pressure sensor. In this project we explore novel designs of LC sensors for sensitive pressure sensing. Currently we are studying a new method to measure pressure using LC sensors and the monolithic integration of MEMS inductors and capacitors on silicon substrates. In addition, we are working on developing techniques for multichannel LC sensors without significant loss in their quality factor.
o Silicon microfluidic device with planar patch-clamp (PPC) structures and microelectrode arrays (MEAs) for simultaneous recording on intra- and extra-cellular cell activity. Patch clamps represent the golden standard in single-cell biology, but require expensive equipment and trained personnel. In this project we are fabricating a silicon lab-on-a-chip device that integrates PPCs and MEAs in the same substrate. The chip will be part of an automated single-cell analysis system for cell biology. This project is in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute (ENAS) in Germany.
Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering
| 245 Church Street | Toronto | ON M5B 2K3 | Canada
Wireless Sensing Lab 