The developments of ultra-low-power electronic devices brings opportunities for disruptive systems like the Internet of Things (IoT).  The security and privacy issues of the huge amount of personal, sensitive, or safety-related data being processed in these systems are the main concerns.  Ensuring security in these ULP systems face additional challenges than in computers because of power/cost constraints and physical accessibility by attackers. To solve these problems, innovations in both software and hardware are demanded.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to connect our physical world with billions of sensors and actuators, transforming the way we live and work, as well as creating enormous business markets. Security and privacy are seen as the most critical challenges to IoT growth in the future. Because of the severe energy and cost constraints as well as physical exposure of the IoT devices, software-only security cannot meet the performance demands and faces a variety of new threats targeting hardware, such as cache attacks, side-channel attacks, and semiconductor supply chain attacks.

This talk will address the latest developments in key building blocks for state-of-the-art IMDs, particularly on the analog front-end, RF back-end, and power management. The talk will include information about the example of a smart cage, which can wirelessly power, communicate with, and track sensors implanted in or attached to small freely behaving animals. Novel minimally-invasive methods explored for individuals with severe paralysis, involving wearable brain-tongue-computer interface (BTCI), also known as the Tongue Drive System (TDS) will be covered.