Case Study
IONA Tech
Industrial IoT / ESD Monitoring
StatIQ Band — a wireless wearable body voltage monitor replacing tethered wrist straps for ESD mitigation in electronics manufacturing.
IONA Tech
Tech Partnership
Industrial IoT / ESD Protection
6 Months
- Dual-mode operation
- One-button pairing with BLE Low Energy
- Multi-item tracking dashboard
Key Outcomes
Delivered a tether-free ESD monitoring wearable with 10V body voltage accuracy and 100V ESD event detection, replacing restrictive wired wrist straps in electronics manufacturing
Achieved 16–20 hour battery life in a wearable form factor with BLE mobile app integration and
cloud dashboard for facility-wide compliance tracking
Supported IONA Tech’s trajectory from NSF SBIR grant (2020) through $600K pre-seed funding
to commercial distribution via TestEquity (2024)
The Challenge
Before partnering with Iottive, IONA Tech was facing several issues:
Tethered Wrist Strap Limitations
Traditional ESD wrist straps physically tether workers to grounding points, limiting mobility, causing tripping hazards, and requiring disconnection every time an operator moves between workstations — creating unmonitored gaps.
Invisible Damage Problem
ESD causes latent damage to sensitive electronics that passes initial quality checks but fails in the field. Without continuous body voltage monitoring, manufacturers cannot identify which operators or events caused damage, leading to costly returns and warranty claims.
Audit and Compliance Gaps
ESD auditors charge $2,400+ per facility visit and provide only point-in-time assessments. Between audits, facilities have no continuous data on ESD compliance, creating liability exposure especially in aerospace, defense, and medical device manufacturing.
Scaling Monitoring Across Facilities
Large electronics manufacturers operate hundreds of workstations. A monitoring solution needed to scale from a single operator to facility-wide coverage without complex infrastructure installation.
Our Solution
Iottive delivered a complete AIoT solution under a full-cycle product development model.
Bluetooth/IoT Expertise
Engineered BLE communication between the StatIQ Band wearable and both mobile apps(iOS/Android)
and facility-mounted data hubs. Designed a mesh network topology where data hubs aggregate
readings from multiple bands, providing facility-wide coverage without per-station wiring.
Design Thinking Approach
Worked with electronics manufacturing floor supervisors and ESD program managers to design alert workflows that interrupt hazardous conditions without disrupting production. Alarm thresholds, escalation paths, and dashboard layouts reflect actual compliance audit requirements.
Project Planning & Execution
Aligned development milestones to IONA Tech’s grant and funding timelines — NSF SBIR Phase I
deliverables, Colorado OEDIT grant milestones, & pre-seed investor demonstrations. Compressed firmware development to meet Test Equity distribution onboarding deadlines.
Functionalities Delivered
Continuous body voltage monitoring with configurable alarm thresholds, ESD event detection and logging, mobile app with real-time readings and historical data, cloud dashboard with facility-wide compliance views, SMS/email alerts for threshold breaches, CSV data export for audit documentation, & single-handed zero-calibration.
Implementation Highlights
Sensors & Hardware
Novel electric field mill sensor unprecedented size-to-accuracy ratio for body voltage measurement (10V resolution). Upper-arm wearable form factor with rechargeable LiPo battery, audible buzzer, and LED status indicators.
Edge & Connectivity
BLE connection to iOS/Android companion app for individual monitoring. Mesh network data hubs for facility-wide aggregation without requiring Wi-Fi infrastructure on the production floor.
Firmware & Performance Optimization
Continuous sampling at high resolution while maintaining 16–20 hour battery life through adaptive sampling rates — increasing frequency during detected body voltage elevation and reducing during stable periods.
Data Analytics & Visualization
Cloud dashboard displays per-operator body voltage trends, ESD event timelines, and compliance scoring. Facility managers see aggregate compliance rates by shift, zone, and time period.
Dashboard & UX
Mobile app provides real-time body voltage reading with color-coded status (green/yellow/red). Tap-tozero calibration. Dashboard designed for both individual operators (simple) and facility managers(detailed analytics).
Security & Compliance
Data encrypted in transit and at rest. Role-based access controls for operators, supervisors, and ESD program managers. Audit-ready CSV export meets ANSI/ESD S20.20 documentation requirements.
Results & Impact
- StatIQ Band priced at $1,199 — half the cost of a single ESD auditor visit ($2,400+), with continuous monitoring vs. point-in-time assessment
- 25x ROI documented for customers by preventing a single ESD-damaged product batch from reaching the field
- Commercial distribution secured through TestEquity, the leading US test equipment distributor, in 2024
- Featured by Apple as a solution for their electronics manufacturing supply chain
- Eliminated tripping hazards and mobility restrictions associated with tethered wrist straps across pilot facilities
“Iottive built the entire wireless stack — from the electric field mill sensor firmware to the cloud compliance dashboard. Their BLE mesh network lets us monitor every operator on a 200-person production floor through a handful of data hubs, with no wiring. When we demonstrated the
system at our pre-seed Demo Day, the live compliance dashboard was what convinced investors to close the $600K round.”
— Daan Stevenson, IONA Tech
Lessons & Best Practices
Design for Invisible Problems
ESD damage is invisible at the point of occurrence. The StatIQ Band’s value proposition required translating an abstract risk (latent electronic damage) into concrete, visible data that manufacturing managers could act on.
Align Development to Funding Gates
Grant milestones and investor demo dates are immovable. Structuring sprints around NSF SBIR
deliverables and Demo Day timelines ensured that working prototypes were ready when funding
decisions were made.
Adaptive Sampling Extends Battery Life
Continuous high-resolution monitoring would drain the battery in 4 hours. Variable-rate sampling — fast during elevated voltage, slow during stable periods — extended runtime to 16–20 hours without sacrificing detection sensitivity.
Build for Audit Requirements
The CSV export format was designed in consultation with ESD program managers to match ANSI/ESD S20.20 audit documentation templates, eliminating manual reformatting.
Technology
Comprehensive IoT Technology Stack
From devices and connectivity to cloud, apps, and security — we leverage a full-stack IoT ecosystem to build scalable, secure, and future-ready solutions.
BLE network
iOS Swift
Android Kotlin
Why Iottive’s the Right Partner
- Industrial wearable expertise: Iottive has built wearable sensor devices for harsh manufacturing environments, solving power, durability, and wireless reliability challenges
- Grant-aligned development: experience structuring IoT product development around SBIR, STTR, and state grant milestone requirements
- Sensor-to-cloud delivery: single team owns custom sensor integration, BLE firmware, mobile apps, and cloud dashboard — critical for a startup with no internal hardware team
Next Steps for IONA Tech
Develop StatIQ Band v2 with integrated temperature and humidity logging for comprehensive ESD environment monitoring
Build facility-wide heatmap visualization showing ESD risk zones in real time
Add predictive analytics to identify operators or workstations with elevated ESD risk before
events occur
Integrate with MES/ERP systems so ESD compliance data flows into existing manufacturing quality management workflows