Northeastern University

<p>Northeastern University’s Center for Research Innovation (CRI) is an impact driven initiative bridging the gap between laboratory research and need-based solutions. The CRI serves as the University-wide portal between industry and leading-edge innovations from Northeastern’s use-inspired research portfolio.</p>
<p>Over the past seven years, research activity at Northeastern has more than doubled. Northeastern’s cutting edge faculty focus their use-inspired research on solving the nation’s greatest challenges in health, security, and sustainability. The Center for Research Innovation connects private companies with the researchers and inventions that meet their business needs – now and in the rapidly evolving future. Our team of professionals all have business and entrepreneurial experience. We strive for a high level of responsiveness and service, moving with speed and flexibility.</p>
<p><strong>Industry Connections:</strong></p>
<p>The CRI is the University’s bridge to industry. We are continuously building relationships with companies to identify their key technology needs and to explore opportunities for collaboration. Our network spans across industry, from the Life Sciences to the Physical Sciences. The CRI aims not only to license individual technologies, but to form long standing partnerships with industry, leveraging the core competencies of our faculty and students.</p>
<p><strong>Collaboration Benefits:</strong></p>
<p>The CRI aims to move beyond the standard paradigm of one-off licenses, focusing instead on forming long-term relationships with industry. We look to assist companies with their ongoing technology needs, leveraging the expertise of our faculty. Collaborating partners can expect flexible terms and IP policy, “high touch” and responsive service, world leading research and development and access to Northeastern resources, including use of labs and equipment.</p>
<p><strong>Research Capabilities:</strong></p>
<p>Northeastern has cutting-edge research in areas such as the Life Sciences, Nanotechnology and Network Research. The CRI can arrange briefings from faculty whose research aligns with your key corporate priorities.</p>
<p>The CRI team is agile and responsive – focused on the translation of University innovations into tangible solutions through licenses, spinouts and collaborations. Our dedication to establishing ongoing dialogue with industry informs Northeastern’s progressive research, enabling a productive balance between exploration and implementation.</p>


<h1 id="background">Background</h1>
<p>Researchers at Northeastern have invented a new type of Subharmonic Tag which uses new dynamics never explored before that allow for activation of an output signal showing a frequency comb in its spectrum. Such a spectral characteristic is the key for the actual implementation of the localization and ranging applications. The presented device consists in a passive, chip-less and battery-less component leveraging exotic dynamics to trigger a never reported frequency read-out mechanism that makes it suitable to operate as a beacon for ranging, localization and navigation. This kind of operation has never been reported and permits to overcome the intrinsic limitations affecting the performance of any previously reported passive tags due to multi-path, readers’ self-interference and clutter.</p>
<h1 id="technology-overview">Technology Overview</h1>
<p>Northeastern researchers have invented a device which consists of a subharmonic tag where one or more resonators are used in its output network. This enables the dynamics that ensure the activation of the localization functionality. When this tag is interrogated by a signal coming from a reader that has a frequency that is twice any one of the parallel resonance frequencies of the adopted acoustic devices, it stops generating a frequency divided by two output signals. Instead, it triggers the activation of a frequency comb with comb line separation that correlates directly to the actual received input power level. Readers can then extrapolate their exact distance from the tag by assessing the comb-line separation characterizing the received portion of the tag’s output signal. Since such a comb line separation (e.g. modulation frequency) is not affected by multipath, self-interference and clutter, it can be used to provide an accurate localization even in indoor and noisy electromagnetic mediums. Through its use, it is therefore possible to navigate in GPS-denied environments without requiring any periodic maintenance, which in many cases is very hard to make.</p>
<h1 id="benefits">Benefits</h1>
<ul>
<li>It achieves localization and ranging with high resolution without requiring any batteries or any integrated circuits.</li>
<li>The achieved sensing performance is not affected by multi-path, self-interference and clutter</li>
<li>All the components in the subharmonic tag for localization can be fabricated on-chip and if needed, while requiring a very reduced fabrication complexity.</li>
<li>The device can also rely on cheap printed substrates commonly used in the assemble of any printed circuit board today.</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="applications">Applications</h1>
<ul>
<li>Indoor Localization</li>
<li>Indoor Navigation</li>
<li>Wireless Sensing</li>
<li>Radio-frequency identification</li>
<li>Internet-of-things devices</li>
</ul>
<h1 id="opportunity">Opportunity</h1>
<p>Seeking licensee and/or industry partner.</p>
