Wireless e-tattoos for personalized sensing and therapeutics
Merging human body with electronics and machines can enable internet of health (IoH), human-machine interface (HMI), as well as augmented human capabilities. However, bio-tissues are soft, curvilinear and dynamic whereas wafer-based electronics are hard, planar, and rigid. Over the past decade, stretchable electronics have emerged as a result of new materials development, structural design and manufacturing processes. In particular, epidermal electronics, a.k.a. electronic tattoos (e-tattoos), represent a class of stretchable circuits, sensors, and stimulators that are ultrathin, ultrasoft and skin-conformable. This talk will introduce the design, manufacture, and validation of e-tattoos. The e-tattoos can laminate at different locations of human skin for the synchronous and continuous tracking of electrophysiology (ECG, EEG, EMG, EOG), mechanophysiology (respiration, seismocardiogram, blood pressure, etc.), as well as thermophysiology etc.. In addition to sensing, the e-tattoos can also be used as personalized treatment and therapeutic devices. For wireless operation, we leverage near field communication (NFC) for wireless charging on-the-go and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) for wireless data transfer. A modular and reconfigurable e-tattoo concept will be introduced. Finally, a vision for closed-loop wearables for sensing, diagnosis, and treatment will be presented.
Dr. Nanshu Lu is currently Temple Foundation Endowed tenured Associate Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. She received her B.Eng. from Tsinghua University, Beijing, Ph.D. from Harvard University, and then Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship at UIUC. Her research concerns the mechanics, materials, manufacture, and human integration of soft electronics. She has published more than 90 journal articles with more than 12,000 citations. She has been one of the founding Associate Editors of Soft Robotics. She has been named 35 innovators under 35 by MIT Technology Review (TR 35), iCANx ACS Nano Rising Star, and has received the US NSF CAREER Award, as well as multiple DOD Young Investigator Awards.
Nanshu Lu
University of Texas at Austin
Nanshu Lu
University of Texas at Austin