In brief

Abstract

PAGE 189 A manufacturing process for composite frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) is presented in work from Korea. The simple method, using an e-beam evaporator, copper layers and glass/epoxy prepregs can produce an FSS that can also function as a structural skin. The researchers believe the method can be used to manufacture a ‘stealth’ technology for communication in a specific frequency range. PAGE 153 Researchers in the UK present a complete four scale continuous wavelet transform (CWT) chip for real-time, multi-level, advanced analysis of ECG signals using only 1.3 nW of power. This is the lowest reported power consumption for a complete wavelet filter bank, and the first demonstration of the use of pico-amp scale currents in a 0.18 µm CMOS process to provide complicated signal processing functions. The FSS produced can also be used as a structural item PAGE 144 Work from Korea has studied the use of the human body as the transmission medium for wearable and implantable medical devices in an RF body area network (BAN). The feasibility of this method was studied using deformable electrodes in the ear canal for in vivo measurement of transmission loss for this mode of transmission between the ear and the wrist and chest. The CWT chip has the lowest power consumption to date and shows the first use of pico-amp currents in 0.18 µm CMOS signal processing PAGE 136 A method for frequency-controlled beam-scanning in the THz band based on a diffraction enhancement grating reflector is proposed in work from China. The concept is verified with a 0.2 THz device using a bilayer structure to introduce multiple reflections to suppress the specular beam. The work aims to provide an alternative to phased array scanning based on frequency sweeping for low cost THz video systems. The work studies feasibility of using of the body itself to transmit RF BAN signals between devices PAGE 146 Researchers in Korea have implemented a precedence walking assistance mechanism in an exoskeleton without using bio-signals based on human gait pattern analysis. They found that, using the proposed method, the operator could reduce muscle force required for step initiation. Using a bilayer structure to introduce multiple reflections to suppress the specular beam yielded diffractive efficiency over 89% Using the no-bio-signal precedence walking assistance method the operator does not need to use as much force to initiate each step