Integrated wearable device for detection of fetal heart rate and material uterine contractions with wireless communication capability

An integrated wearable device for use on a maternal body including at least one fetus to detect sounds which are indicative of a fetal heart rate and biopotentials indicative of maternal uterine contractions and for wireless communication to a local wireless communications device the wireless communications device providing for data visualization relating to fetal heart rate and maternal uterine contractions, comprising:

• an adhesive planar, flexible patch, the patch having a center, the adhesive patch adapted for attachment to the maternal body,
• an ultrasound transducer array, the ultrasound transducer array being an array located at the center of the patch composed of a plurality of transducer elements, the ultrasound transducer array being supported by the patch to maintain the ultrasound transducer array in an operative contacting relationship to the maternal body for detection of at least signals indicative of the fetal heart rate,
• a transmission system coupled to the ultrasound transducer array to provide signal information for transmission into the maternal body using the ultrasound array,
• a planar microphone array, the microphone array including a first plurality of microphones being arranged in a first circular array located a first fixed distance from the center of the planar, flexible patch, and a second plurality of microphones being arranged in a second circular array located a second fixed distance from the center of the patch, where the first fixed distance and second fixed distance are different, the microphone array being positioned to be placed in operative contacting relationship to the maternal body for detection of at least signals indicative of the fetal heart rate,
• a receiver system coupled to the ultrasound microphone array to receive signal information including both frequency and phase information at least indicative of the fetal heart rate through the ultrasound array,
• a continuous wave Doppler detector, the detector coupled to the receiver system to utilize both frequency and phase of the received signal information to determine the fetal heart rate,
• two or more electrodes, the electrodes being supported by the patch to maintain the electrodes in an operative relationship to the maternal body for detection of at least biopotential signals indicative of maternal uterine contractions,
• a switch disposed between the (1) transmission system and receiver system and (2) the ultrasound array,
• control circuitry coupled to the transmission system and the receiver system to selectively actuate the switch between transmitting and receiving signals through the ultrasound transducer array and the microphone array, the control circuitry further including an analytics processor to determine the fetal heart rate and maternal uterine contractions, and,
• a wireless communication system, the wireless communication system sending the information relating to the signals indicative of the fetal heart rate and the biopotential signals indicative of maternal uterine contractions to the local wireless communications device in real time for data visualization relating to fetal heart rate and maternal uterine contractions.