Flexible Integration Techniques for Wireless Sensors Network Deployment: Application to Aircraft Structure Health Monitoring

This paper describes the realization of a 60GHz wireless communicating node integrated on a flexible substrate for wireless sensors networks. These wireless communicating objects are composed of sensors and a transceiver which includes digital baseband, RF front-end at 60GHz and an antenna. The MAC layer which establishes the network is also integrated in ASIC together with the digital baseband and reported by flip chip on flexible substrate. The 60GHz band was chosen because of its short range propagation and its directionally which is a major advantage for wireless sensor networks deployed in a small, closed area, like an aircraft. The main advantage of the flexible substrate integration is the realization of wireless sensor networks which can be placed in all locations, even those difficult to access. The main application addressed in this paper is Structure Health Monitoring for aircrafts.