Movano, a healthcare solutions company, has successfully validated the functionality of its proprietary system-on-a-chip (SoC), which combines multiple antennas and a variety of frequencies in a small (4 mm x 6.7 mm) radio frequency (RF)-enabled integrated circuit (IC) designed specifically for blood pressure or glucose monitoring systems.
Movano built the integrated sensor, dubbed mmWave, from the ground up for improved precision in glucose and blood pressure monitoring, and has invested four years into this novel non-invasive sensor technology.
“The majority of current wearables on the market use off-the-shelf optical sensors, whereas Movano has made a significant investment into creating its own fully integrated mmWave sensor simply because the standard approach cannot deliver the level of accuracy, flexibility of form factor or cost we are aiming to achieve,” says John Mastrototaro, PhD, CEO of Movano.
“RF offers the opportunity for increased accuracy in health monitoring across a broader population because it is not affected by different skin pigmentation, as can be the case with optical sensors. In addition, our solution is fabricated using the latest processes in semiconductor technology, meaning the size can be smaller and the materials more cost-effective—giving us greater flexibility in the design of future medical devices and in our ability to offer a solution that’s affordable, so we can reach a larger, more diverse segment of people. In preparation for additional clinical studies, we’re integrating the SoC into a new, smaller prototype system to make further advancements on our quest to accurately measure blood pressure and glucose.”
This key milestone highlights Movano’s investment in R&D, and represents the culmination of a massive undertaking, led by engineers with decades of experience in RF, to shrink its multi-chip architecture from four ICs into a single integrated sensor.
Alongside this milestone, the company was granted a new patent, marking a total of seven U.S. patents currently issued to Movano. The new patent protects innovations around Movano’s multi-band chip design, which uses signal diversity and advanced signal processing capabilities, and will be integrated into various devices in the future.
