Design & Prototyping

The Center for Remote Health Technologies and Systems (CRHTS) has a range of facilities for prototyping electronic, optical and mechanical systems and works with industry partners from across the globe on original equipment manufacture (OEM) prototypes.

CRHTS works with clinical, public health and behavioral psychology experts toward non-obtrusive designs for patients and end users that involve wearable sensors and mobile platform medical devices for fitness, preventative care for patients with a predisposition for disease, and predictive analysis of chronically ill conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

CRHTS can prototype phantom tissues and test and measurement systems that have the ability to mimic human tissue anatomy and physiology, including providing accurate optical properties of skin tone and blood. The test systems described in the Test and Measurement section can simulate various motion artifact, pressures and temperatures. Together, these phantoms and systems can improve design cycle time and minimize the number and scope of animal and human studies.

CRHTS mechanical facilities range from excimer laser cutting with feature sizes down to a few microns, CO2 laser cutting for hundreds of microns, 3-D printers, and a full machine shop including a milling machine for larger-scale prototyping. The electrical facilities include a full suite of National Instruments (NI) ELVIS boards for early prototyping, printed circuit board prototyping capabilities, RF coil fabrication, and reflow soldering system. The optical capabilities include a range of configurable systems from fluorescent sensing and imaging to polarized light systems to optical coherence tomographic imaging and mobile platform-based sensing and imaging systems such as photoplethysmography (PPG) and microscopy on a phone.