Portrait of Professor John Batchelor

Professor John Batchelor

Head of Biomedical Engineering Research Group
Professor of Antenna Technology

About

John Batchelor is Professor of Antenna Technology. He received the B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK, in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He is head of the Biomedical Engineering Research Group.Prof Batchelor has published work in international journals such as the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation and he has attracted EPSRC and industrial funding. He has collaborated with groups at the Universities of Manchester and Surrey (UK) and Auckland (New Zealand). He has also collaborated with The Centre for Process Innovation, PITO (now National Policing Improvement Agency) and numerous industrial companies.His research interest is in the design and manufacture of RFID based low power sensing technologies include body-worn antennas, platform independent RFID tags, transfer tattoo tags for skin, printed electronics and future manufacturing, and the use of passive wireless sensors for Assistive Technologies.More information on this research area is outlined in the Think Kent talk: Everyday Things As Sensors: www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3AxoMn50lIView all publications

Research interests

Following an EPSRC Foresight Manufacturing Fellowship, John’s current research is concerned with the design and manufacture of wearable wireless technologies and low power systems for the Internet of Things. His work is primarily funded by EPSRC, the European Commission and by Industrial Contract. He is Principal Investigator on EPSRC project EP/P027075/1, ‘Passively Powered Non-invasive Human Body Sensing on Bio-Degradable Conformal Substrates’, EP/R02331X/1, ‘Formulating and Manufacturing Low Profile Integrated Batteries for Wireless Sensing Labels’ and EP/S020160/1, ‘MultiSense - Devising and Manufacturing mm-Wave High Data Rate Low Latency On-Skin Technologies. These projects aim to develop inkjet printed passive wireless sensing RFID tags on challenging substrates and are both in collaboration with inkjet specialists at the University of Manchester, and The Centre for Process Innovation. 

These projects are developing printed label format wireless sensors for long term monitoring of ECG, movement, and other bio-applications, as well as off-body applications such as environmental sensing and power monitoring for smart metering. These low-profile integrated sensors are being developed for roll-to-roll manufacture based on printed electronics. The sensors are either passive, or are assisted by printed batteries which are integrated into the label substrate. We have demonstrated data rates sufficient to stream bio-waveforms over UHF RFID links and are now investigating mmWave bands to enable high capacity data over parallel channels. We are also investigating new pop-up structures for sensing purposes for integration with these low power sensors. 

John's RFID transfer tattoo design was highly commended in the IET 2011 innovation awards and he was a co-investigator on the EPSRC project AART-BC (Assistive, Adaptive and Rehabilitative Technologies - Beyond the Clinic). This project was a collaboration with the universities of Warwick, York, Cardiff, UCL, Oxford Brookes and Salford. The focus was the development of a platform to monitor the use of AT and compliance with RP and support the patient outside of the clinic. 

Other EPSRC funded collaborations have developed human scanned avatars to evaluate body-centric wireless channels (with Sheffield University), bodyworn antenna designs in the form of Jeans buttons (with Dr Benito Sanz-Izquierdo), RFID transfer tattoos, Frequency Selective Surfaces for spectrum control and frequency re-use within buildings (with Manchester and Auckland Universities) and LTCC Surface Integrated Waveguide Antennas for mm-wave systems (with Surrey University).

Teaching

Teaching responsibilities include:

Introduction to Electronics (first year)
Microwave Circuit Design (second year)
Mobile Transmission Systems (third year)
Antennas for Modern Communications (third year)
Mobile Antennas and Propagation (MSc)

Publications

Last updated 11 November 2022