FS Backscatter Communication

TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION

The Frequency-Shifted (FS) Backscatter invention promotes practical backscatter communication for ultra-low power on-body sensors by leveraging radios on existing smart phones and wearables. This invention addresses the self-interference from the wireless carrier without relying on built-in capability to cancel or reject the carrier interference.  Utilizing this invention, the tag shifts the carrier signal to an adjacent non-overlapping frequency band and isolates the spectrum of the backscatter signal from the spectrum of the primary signal to enable more robust decoding.

TECHNOLOGY DESCRIPTION

 

 

ADVANTAGES

• Can shift signal 20 MHz while only consuming microwatts of power

• Uses convention electronic devices (e.g. smartphones and wearables) as transmitters and receivers

• Communicate with WiFi and Bluetooth radios at a range of 5m and a bitrate of 50 kbps

 

 

APPLICATIONS

• Continuous data streaming from on-body sensors

• Multi-carrier communications

• Healthcare/eldercare

 

 

ABOUT THE LEAD INVENTOR

Deepak Ganesan is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at UMass Amherst. His research focuses on ultra-low power wireless communication via backscatter, novel platforms and algorithms for mobile and wearable health sensing, learning and inference on multi-modal sensor data, and micro-powered sensors. Dr. Ganesan leads the UMass Sensors Research Group.

 

 

AVAILABILITY:

Available for Licensing and/or Sponsored Research

 

 

DOCKET:

UMA 16-055

 

 

PATENT STATUS:

Patent Pending

 

 

NON-CONFIDENTIAL INVENTION DISCLOSURE

 

 

LEAD INVENTOR:

, Deepak Ganesan, Ph.D.

 

 

CONTACT:

 

The Frequency-Shifted (FS) Backscatter invention promotes practical backscatter communication for ultra-low power on-body sensors by leveraging radios on existing smart phones and wearables. This invention addresses the self-interference from the wireless carrier without relying on built-in capability to cancel or reject the carrier interference.  Utilizing this invention, the tag shifts the carrier signal to an adjacent non-overlapping frequency band and isolates the spectrum of the backscatter signal from the spectrum of the primary signal to enable more robust decoding.

Patent Information: