Applications of semiconductor technologies in aging-friendly spaces: A comprehensive review
Gaojie Zhang, Haoxiang WangBackground
Aging-friendly spaces increasingly rely on integrated sensing, computing, communication, and power technologies to support safety, health monitoring, environmental comfort, and social interaction for older adults.
Objective
This review examines aging-friendly technologies from a semiconductor-centric perspective and clarifies how device- and hardware-level characteristics shape system performance and practical deployment.
Methods
Relevant literature was identified through searches of Web of Science, Scopus, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and PubMed, focusing mainly on studies published from 2015 to 2025, with recent studies added during manuscript revision. Studies addressing semiconductor-enabled sensing, embedded computing, wireless communication and positioning, power management, heterogeneous integration, and related aging applications were synthesized.
Results
The review identifies sensors, MCU/SoC platforms with TinyML, SiC/GaN power devices, and BLE/UWB/NB-IoT communication technologies as key enabling components. Major development trends include heterogeneous integration, edge intelligence, ultra-low-power design, and reliability-oriented system optimization. Persistent challenges concern interoperability, privacy, energy efficiency, long-term reliability, and user-centered deployment.
Conclusion
Semiconductor-level co-design across sensing, processing, communication, power, and packaging is essential for developing efficient, reliable, privacy-aware, and human-centered aging-friendly systems.