Paper skin sensors can “feel”
A sensor, called Paper Skin, can feel touch, pressure, touch, pressure, temperature, acidity and humidity.
A team of electrical engineers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) developed the Paper Skin. Their work was published on February 19, 2016 in the inaugural issue of Advanced Materials Technologies by Wiley-VCH (Germany).
“Our work has the potential to revolutionize the electronics industry and opens the door to commercializing affordable high-performance sensing devices,” stated Muhammad Mustafa Hussain, KAUST associate professor of electrical engineering from the University’s Integrated Nanotechnology Lab, where the research was conducted.
“Previous efforts in this direction used sophisticated materials or processes,” Hussain continued. “Chemically functionalized inkjet printed or vacuum technology-processed papers — albeit cheap — have shown limited functionalities. Here we show a scalable ‘garage’ fabrication approach using off-the-shelf and inexpensive household elements.”
The team used sticky note paper to detect humidity, sponges and wipes to detect pressure and aluminum foil to detect motion. Coloring a sticky note with an HB pencil allowed the paper to detect acidity levels, and aluminum foil and conductive silver ink were used to detect temperature differences.
The materials were put together into a simple paper-based platform that was then connected to a device that detected changes in electrical conductivity according to external stimuli.
“The next stage will be to optimize the sensor’s integration on this platform for applications in medical monitoring systems. The flexible and conformal sensory platform will enable simultaneous real-time monitoring of body vital signs, such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing patterns and movement,” Hussain said.
“We may also transfer the achieved functionalities of the technology to biologically grown skin and develop mechanisms to connect it to neuronal networks in the human body to assist burn victims, for example. Other applications include robotics, vehicular technology and environmental surveys,” he added.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
