Low Power Remote Neonatal Temperature Monitoring Device

In this paper we present the design of a wearable temperature sensing device for remote neonatal monitoring. It is designed for continuous and real-time monitoring of the infants in remote rural areas, for the first few weeks after their birth. It is capable of sensing the neonate’s skin temperature with 0.1◦ C accuracy to detect the early onset of hypothermia. The sensed data is transferred securely over bluetooth low energy radio to a nearby gateway, which then relays the information to a central database for real time monitoring. The device incorporates a medical grade thermistor which is directly interfaced to a microcontroller with an integrated bluetooth low energy radio. Low power optimizations at both the circuit and software levels ensure sleep currents of only 1uA, ensuring very long battery life. The device is packaged in a baby friendly, water proof housing and is easily sterilizable and reusable.