Integrating mems sensors in wearable biomedical devices: challenges and opportunities in embedded systems
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Abstract
Wearable biomedical devices, aided by the advancements in Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors, are creating new opportunities in personalized healthcare. These nano-sensors have the potential to measure physiological, bio-chemical and kinetic parameters, and are contributing to transforming health monitoring by elaborating continuous non-invasive monitoring. This paper addresses the multilevel interplay of MEMS in current wearable biomedical mechatronic architectures, with a specific focus on the MEMS embedding into system on chip and embedded system architectures. MEMS accelerometers, gyroscopes, pressure sensors, and biosensors are indispensable to contemporary equipment for cardiac activity, respiration, glucose, hydration and neurological signal monitoring. In spite of their revolutionary capabilities, MEMS sensors cannot be directly incorporated into wearable embedded systems due to a number of issues. These issues involve signal noise and drift, power consumption, sensor calibration, miniaturization, biocompatibility, and robust real-time data communication under resource-constrained platforms. The embedded system designer also needs to meet strict low power requirements but yet provide fast sampling rates and edge computing features. In addition, the interconnection of different sensory systems, the intricate algorithms for sensor fusion and the security of personal health information via secure systems are important issues. On other hand, this fusion creates unprecedented opportunities as well. Innovations in low-power microcontrollers, ultra-low-power wireless communication protocols (e.g., BLE, NB-IoT), and smart data processing techniques like TinyML enable context-aware, adaptive, and autonomous healthmonitoring systems. Such systems are particularly useful in the handling of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, epilepsy, and cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, the integrated microfabrication,provided by MEMS technology, combined with soft electronics and flexible substrates, offers an emerging direction toward next-generation biomedical wearables that are stretchable, skin-like, and noninvasive. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on the landscape of MEMS sensor integration into embedded systems for wearable healthcare, covering the latest advances in the area and the recent progress as well as open issues. It also takes a future-oriented view on how AI-based sensor data processing, energy harvesting methods and cybersecurity architectures can be employed to mitigate existing shortcomings. The proposed work contributes to the advancement of more reliable, scalable, and user-centric biomedical wearables that support quality of life and shift patient care paradigms.
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