Small Business/SBIR

Wearable Computer in Prototype Stage

WORK IS SET TO BEGIN ON A PROTOTYPE for a wearable "computer-in-a-cube" using a new version of the proprietary chip-stacking technology currently aboard the Hubble Space Telescope as part of Hubble's new solid-state data recorder retrofit in February 1997.

The technology was developed through both the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and several NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program contracts managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. It is being used to produce a voice-activated, wearable computer system to be worn as part of future battlefield combatant clothing. This development program supports the Advanced Humionics Platform (AHP), which is funded by DARPA and managed by the U.S. Army Soldier System Center.

The wearable computer's core, dubbed the "Independent Processor Module (IPM)," will be the size of a deck of cards. An integrated suite of electronics and sensors needed to cope with a wide array of operational and support needs is planned to include a battery, microphone and eye glasses' display with miniature camera under a separate contract with DARPA and the Soldier System Center. To support that goal, the IPM is being designed to weigh less than one-half pound and to blend into the clothing of military personnel so it will not interfere with any other equipment.

Irvine Sensors Corporation's proprietary Neo-stack™ packaging technology is being used for the development of a computer-in-a-cube for the IPM. Four such cubes per IPM would then provide the unit with workstation capability. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a subcontract from the Boeing Company developed the Neo-stack™ process in this project under a NASA Phase III SBIR contract.

The stack technology allows different chips to be stacked together in the same stack as well as multiple chips per layer. The goal is to use the Neo-stack™ approach to integrate mass memory storage, an Intel StrongARM™ microprocessor, interconnection logic and an Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 1394 communications interface for networking in a single cube. The original Irvine Sensors three-dimensional proprietary chip-stacking technology was developed under several SBIR contracts, including several funded by Goddard. Irvine Sensors' DRAM Memory Short Stacks were the first chip-stack products to use the original chip-stacking process, and they are currently aboard Hubble.

Keith D. Gann, Irvine Sensors' Director of High Density Electronics, said, "Neo-stacking was conceived to accommodate chips of different physical dimensions in the same stack. This capability is expected to enable embedded complete systems where extreme miniaturization is necessary, such as the processing stacks for the AHP module. When multiple chips can be included in each layer with both varying functionality and a high level of interconnectivity, a wide variety of system applications will be possible. The process is being developed to facilitate manufacturing automation, a key factor in terms of costs."

Irvine Sensors Corporation, headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, is primarily engaged in the development and sale of high-density electronics, micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) sensors, sensor readout circuits, image processing devices, miniaturized cameras, electronic film systems, wireless infrared communications products, and low-power analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for diverse systems applications.

For more information, contact Keith D. Gann at Irvine Sensors.
Call: 714/444-8765, E-mail: kgann@irvine-sensors.com
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Several spinoff technologies have come from the Hubble Space Telescope, in this artist's rendering, including a chip stacking process that is being applied to a wearable computer system for combat use.

The core of a wearable computer is four of the Neo-stack™ computers-in-a-cube with workstation capability.