Abstract
This article presents a smart bandage with wireless strain and temperature sensors and a batteryless near-field communication (NFC) tag. Both sensors are based on conductive poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) polymer. The highly sensitive strain sensor consists of a microfluidic channel filled with PEDOT:PSS in Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The strain sensor shows 3 order ( <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 1250) increase in the resistance for 10% strain and considerably high gauge factor (GF) of <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 12 500. The sensor was tested for <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 30% strain, which is more than typical stretching of human skin or body parts such as chest expansion during respiration. The strain sensor was also tested for different bending and the electrical resolution was <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 150% per degree of free bending and <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 12k% per percentage of stretching. The resistive temperature sensor, fabricated on a Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) substrate, showed a <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 60% decrease in resistance when the temperature changed from 25 °C to 85 °C and a sensitivity of <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">~</sub> 1% per °C. As a proof of concept, the sensors and NFC tag were integrated on wound dressing to obtain wearable systems with smart bandage form factor. The sensors can be operated and read from distance of 25 mm with a user-friendly smartphone application developed for powering the system as well as real-time acquisition of sensors data. Finally, we demonstrate the potential use of smart bandage in healthcare applications such as assessment of wound status or respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COVID-19, where monitoring via wearable strain (e.g., respiratory volume) and temperature sensors is critical.
Highlights
This article presents a smart bandage with wireless strain and temperature sensors and a batteryless near-field communication (NFC) tag
If the user places the bandage on a body joint or in any part of the body, the bending of the sensor will directly create a strain in the sensor and a bending of angle θ, as shown schematically in Fig. 3(c), would lead to stretching of l = l = 2wsin(θ/2), where l is the length of the sensor and w is the effective width of the bodypart
Both strain and temperature sensors were integrated with a batteryless NFC tag based on a flexible polyimide substrate
Summary
This article presents a smart bandage with wireless strain and temperature sensors and a batteryless near-field communication (NFC) tag. Both sensors are based on conductive poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) polymer. We demonstrate the potential use of smart bandage in healthcare applications such as assessment of wound status or respiratory diseases, such as asthma and COVID-19, where monitoring via wearable strain (e.g., respiratory volume) and temperature sensors is critical. Several types of wearable sensors tethered to the patients via cables have been explored as an alternative to the traditional lab-based measurement systems [7]–[9].
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