Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics
Abstract Rapid progress on wearable bioelectronics holds the promise for remote patient monitoring. However, there are concerns related with the use of batteries, including the need for frequent charging, user safety, and environmental pollution. The development of rapidly deployable battery‐free pa...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Wiley-VCH
2023-02-01
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Series: | Advanced Sensor Research |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/adsr.202200025 |
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author | Miguel Maranha André F. Silva Pedro Alhais Lopes Aníbal T. deAlmeida Mahmoud Tavakoli |
author_facet | Miguel Maranha André F. Silva Pedro Alhais Lopes Aníbal T. deAlmeida Mahmoud Tavakoli |
author_sort | Miguel Maranha |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Abstract Rapid progress on wearable bioelectronics holds the promise for remote patient monitoring. However, there are concerns related with the use of batteries, including the need for frequent charging, user safety, and environmental pollution. The development of rapidly deployable battery‐free patches that harvest their energy from external sources is highly desired. Here, untethered battery‐free patches through far‐field energy harvesting are demonstrated. Taking advantage of a stretchable biphasic liquid metal‐based ink and digital fabrication techniques, that is, direct printing, and laser patterning, tailor‐made customized antennas are fabricated over various substrates, including polydimethylsiloxane, Kapton, and wound‐dressing medical‐grade adhesives. Folded dipole and planar inverted‐F antennas (PIFA) are evaluated and they are optimized for an over‐the‐body scenario. Compared to previous works that only show communication of data at <1 Hz, here, battery‐free acquisition and transmission of electrocardiogram (ECG) data at 100 Hz via Bluetooth is demonstrated. It is shown that using 3 parallel PIFA antennas, it is possible to harvest ≈10 mW at 30 cm from the transmitter, which is ≈7× the required power by the ECG circuit. This study proves the feasibility of next generation of battery‐free wearable biomonitoring patches/e‐textiles and demonstrates materials and methods for fabrication of optimized printed antennas. |
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id | doaj.art-5fa8ad27418e424fa3805388b1ba51c4 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2751-1219 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:29:34Z |
publishDate | 2023-02-01 |
publisher | Wiley-VCH |
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series | Advanced Sensor Research |
spelling | doaj.art-5fa8ad27418e424fa3805388b1ba51c42023-07-21T15:30:39ZengWiley-VCHAdvanced Sensor Research2751-12192023-02-0122n/an/a10.1002/adsr.202200025Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable BioelectronicsMiguel Maranha0André F. Silva1Pedro Alhais Lopes2Aníbal T. deAlmeida3Mahmoud Tavakoli4Soft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory Institute of Systems and Robotics Department of Electrical Engineering University of Coimbra Coimbra 3030‐290 PortugalSoft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory Institute of Systems and Robotics Department of Electrical Engineering University of Coimbra Coimbra 3030‐290 PortugalSoft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory Institute of Systems and Robotics Department of Electrical Engineering University of Coimbra Coimbra 3030‐290 PortugalSoft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory Institute of Systems and Robotics Department of Electrical Engineering University of Coimbra Coimbra 3030‐290 PortugalSoft and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory Institute of Systems and Robotics Department of Electrical Engineering University of Coimbra Coimbra 3030‐290 PortugalAbstract Rapid progress on wearable bioelectronics holds the promise for remote patient monitoring. However, there are concerns related with the use of batteries, including the need for frequent charging, user safety, and environmental pollution. The development of rapidly deployable battery‐free patches that harvest their energy from external sources is highly desired. Here, untethered battery‐free patches through far‐field energy harvesting are demonstrated. Taking advantage of a stretchable biphasic liquid metal‐based ink and digital fabrication techniques, that is, direct printing, and laser patterning, tailor‐made customized antennas are fabricated over various substrates, including polydimethylsiloxane, Kapton, and wound‐dressing medical‐grade adhesives. Folded dipole and planar inverted‐F antennas (PIFA) are evaluated and they are optimized for an over‐the‐body scenario. Compared to previous works that only show communication of data at <1 Hz, here, battery‐free acquisition and transmission of electrocardiogram (ECG) data at 100 Hz via Bluetooth is demonstrated. It is shown that using 3 parallel PIFA antennas, it is possible to harvest ≈10 mW at 30 cm from the transmitter, which is ≈7× the required power by the ECG circuit. This study proves the feasibility of next generation of battery‐free wearable biomonitoring patches/e‐textiles and demonstrates materials and methods for fabrication of optimized printed antennas.https://doi.org/10.1002/adsr.202200025biomonitoringfar‐field energy harvestingfolded dipole antennasliquid metal‐silverplanar inverted‐F antennaswearable stretchable bioelectronics |
spellingShingle | Miguel Maranha André F. Silva Pedro Alhais Lopes Aníbal T. deAlmeida Mahmoud Tavakoli Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics Advanced Sensor Research biomonitoring far‐field energy harvesting folded dipole antennas liquid metal‐silver planar inverted‐F antennas wearable stretchable bioelectronics |
title | Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics |
title_full | Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics |
title_fullStr | Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics |
title_full_unstemmed | Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics |
title_short | Digitally Printed Liquid Metal Composite Antenna for Energy Harvesting: Toward Energy‐Autonomous Battery‐Free Wearable Bioelectronics |
title_sort | digitally printed liquid metal composite antenna for energy harvesting toward energy autonomous battery free wearable bioelectronics |
topic | biomonitoring far‐field energy harvesting folded dipole antennas liquid metal‐silver planar inverted‐F antennas wearable stretchable bioelectronics |
url | https://doi.org/10.1002/adsr.202200025 |
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