I-Corps: MicroFlotronics: Flexible Transparent, Pressure-Sensitive Microfluidic Films for Biomedical Applications

I-Corps：MicroFlotronics：用于生物医学应用的柔性透明、压敏微流控薄膜

• 批准号: 1451056
• 负责人: Tingrui Pan
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of California-Davis
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1451056&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; MicroFlotronics; Flexible; Transparent; Pressure

There is an increasing demand for sensitive, flexible, and low-cost pressure sensing solutions for health monitoring, wearable sensing, robotic and prosthetic applications. This proposal describes a translational research plan to develop highly sensitive pressure sensing devices to map pressure distributions at an ultrafine spatial resolution. The proposed sensing technology offers a powerful alternative to the solid-state pressure sensors, by providing an unprecedented sensitivity and ultrafast response time in a completely transparent, flexible and adaptive platform. Potential applications can be integration with existing medical applications: given its low-cost and flexible design,the sensor can be readily integrated into existing medical devices (e.g., disposable catheters) for physiological pressure monitoring; and artificial skin with digital sensation: our ultrasensitive and flexible sensor film can be integrated onto the soft fingertip surface of a glove to stimulate the sense of touch.This proposal intends to deliver the world first microfluidics-enabled flexible pressure-sensitive film for biomedical applications, as a powerful alternative to the existing solid-state pressure sensors. The proposed microflotronics sensors offer several unique advantages over existing pressure sensing technologies: ultrahigh sensitivity, low cost, rapid mechanical response, ultrathin profile, soft skin-like construct, stable sensing units, and optical transparency. The microfluidics-enabled sensing devices pioneered by this team have shown promise in an array of unconventional applications in which a minute amount of liquid sensing elements rapidly respond to an external load by altering the physical properties or geometries.

人们对用于健康监测、可穿戴传感、机器人和假肢应用的灵敏、灵活和低成本压力传感解决方案的需求日益增加。该提案描述了一个转化研究计划，以开发高灵敏度的压力传感设备，以超精细的空间分辨率映射压力分布。 所提出的传感技术通过在完全透明、灵活和自适应的平台上提供前所未有的灵敏度和超快的响应时间，为固态压力传感器提供了强大的替代方案。潜在的应用可以与现有的医疗应用集成：考虑到其低成本和灵活的设计，传感器可以容易地集成到现有的医疗设备中（例如，我们的产品包括用于生理压力监测的一次性导管;以及具有数字感觉的人造皮肤：我们的超灵敏和柔性传感器薄膜可以集成到手套的柔软指尖表面，以刺激触觉。该提案旨在提供世界上第一个用于生物医学应用的微流体柔性压敏薄膜，作为现有固态压力传感器的强大替代品。与现有的压力传感技术相比，所提出的微电子传感器提供了几个独特的优点：灵敏度高、成本低、机械响应快、轮廓清晰、柔软的皮肤状结构、稳定的传感单元和光学透明性。 该团队开创的微流体传感设备在一系列非常规应用中显示出了希望，其中微量的液体传感元件通过改变物理特性或几何形状快速响应外部负载。