In most of the human health and safety application fields, it is crucial to provide reliable
remote sensing and transmission. For instance, monitoring food health during cooking would
be a key feature for reducing very common social diseases. In this context, sensor nodes may
have to work in harsh environments, such as at a very high temperature (over 200° C) and in
gas or liquid medium where the dependability of the system must be guaranteed in
conjunction with energy efficiency for widespread diffusion as autonomous nodes.
Furthermore, to keep sensor nodes as simple as possible, complex computations on sensed
data have to be performed on other systems which receive information from sensor nodes; to
avoid constrains due to cables sensor nodes have to provide wireless communications. This
kind of very innovative devices are characterized by a heterogeneous architecture as they
require the integration into a single system-in-package (SiP) of different types of devices
(e.g., sensors, RF devices, memories, microcontrollers, etc.). Moreover, issues about
biocompatibility and airtightness should be addressed when the SiP has to be in contact with
food. Furthermore, no high-end peak technologies must be used in this context if the final
price of the chip must be compatible with a spread diffusion of it.
The MEALTH project aims at providing design technologies for low-cost, biocompatible,
miniaturized, hermetic SiPs working at a very high temperature, minimizing power
consumption, while guaranteeing high dependability.