Binodal, wireless epidermal electronic systems with in-sensor analytics for neonatal intensive care.

Existing vital sign monitoring systems in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) require multiple wires connected to rigid sensors with strongly adherent interfaces to the skin. We introduce a pair of ultrathin, soft, skin-like electronic devices whose coordinated, wireless operation reproduces the functionality of these traditional technologies but bypasses their intrinsic limitations. The enabling advances in engineering science include designs that support wireless, battery-free operation; real-time, in-sensor data analytics; time-synchronized, continuous data streaming; soft mechanics and gentle adhesive interfaces to the skin; and compatibility with visual inspection and with medical imaging techniques used in the NICU. Preliminary studies on neonates admitted to operating NICUs demonstrate performance comparable to the most advanced clinical-standard monitoring systems.

In-Memory Computing Architectures for Sparse Distributed Memory.

This paper presents an energy-efficient and high-throughput architecture for Sparse Distributed Memory (SDM)-a computational model of the human brain [1]. The proposed SDM architecture is based on the recently proposed in-memory computing kernel for machine learning applications called Compute Memory (CM) [2], [3]. CM achieves energy and throughput efficiencies by deeply embedding computation into the memory array. SDM-specific techniques such as hierarchical binary decision (HBD) are employed to reduce the delay and energy further. The CM-based SDM (CM-SDM) is a mixed-signal circuit, and hence circuit-aware behavioral, energy, and delay models in a 65 nm CMOS process are developed in order to predict system performance of SDM architectures in the auto- and hetero-associative modes. The delay and energy models indicate that CM-SDM, in general, can achieve up to 25 × and 12 × delay and energy reduction, respectively, over conventional SDM. When classifying 16 × 16 binary images with high noise levels (input bad pixel ratios: 15%-25%) into nine classes, all SDM architectures are able to generate output bad pixel ratios (Bo) ≤ 2%. The CM-SDM exhibits negligible loss in accuracy, i.e., its Bo degradation is within 0.4% as compared to that of the conventional SDM.