A wearable monolithic wireless multi-sensor system based on reflected impedance

同时对许多感兴趣的生物医学参数进行无线传感可以提供有关疾病或整体健康状态的关键信息。然而，在目前的实践中，生物医学传感通常仅限于跟踪单个参数，这不足以监测影响健康或疾病状态的多种因素及其相互作用。尽管目前有许多类型的传感器可用，但它们的小型化和集成化受到了极大的限制，因为需要许多额外的离散组件来实现数据读出、供电和无线操作等功能。因此，由此产生的多传感器系统是具有大量体积的复杂组件，这阻碍了它们以可穿戴形式实际实施。紧凑型、可穿戴式无线操作的多传感器系统在个性化和预防性医疗以及监测健康方面有许多潜在的应用。在拟议的项目中，反射阻抗无线传感技术将被用于开发可穿戴系统，长期监测汗液和间质性液体中的分析物。潜在的应用包括：在糖尿病患者中实现与健康人相当的严格血糖调节的人工胰腺；用于预防脓毒症和感染的伤口愈合监测；高成绩运动员的水合和运动的实时量化；以及心血管疾病患者的心力衰竭监测。该项目将通过研究经验为女性和代表性不足的少数族裔学生研究人员提供培训机会。为了给不同的受众提供更多参与研究成果的机会，将开发适合本科生和研究生的教育产品，如实验室演示和练习。该项目的目标是利用最近发现的使用反射阻抗原理的无线操作，以便多个无电源微型传感器可以无线通信捕获电化学阻抗变化的数据。为此，我们将使用由柔性微线圈、集成薄膜桥式电容器和传感电极组成的核心可穿戴平台。一个无线连接到可穿戴平台的外部读卡器完成了系统。为了推进超紧凑型无线多传感器系统，主要任务包括：(1)提出无线反射阻抗传感理论，(2)确定使性能最大化的因素，(3)制定支持多传感器的反射阻抗系统的一般设计规则，以及(4)在模拟条件下演示利用反射阻抗无线传感多个分析物。出于演示的目的，将根据需要在传感电极上应用量身定制的涂层，以实现对葡萄糖、皮质醇和离子等特征良好的标记物的选择性。反射阻抗传感的基本原理可推广应用于生物医学传感的其他领域，包括长期植入的传感器。采用不同的功能涂层可以基于阻抗检测与其他疾病条件相关的其他分析物。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Wireless sensing of many biomedical parameters of interest at once can provide crucial information about disease or overall health state. However, in current practice, biomedical sensing is most often limited to tracking only a single parameter which is inadequate to monitor the multiple factors and their interplay that influence health or disease state. Although many sensor types are currently available, their miniaturization and integration are greatly limited by the need for many additional discrete components necessary for functions such as data readout, powering, and wireless operation. Consequently, resulting multi-sensor system are complex assemblies with significant bulk that prevent their practical implementation in a wearable format. Compact, wearable multi-sensor systems that operate wirelessly have many potential applications in personalized and preventative medicine and monitoring health. In the proposed project, the reflected impedance wireless sensing technology will be leveraged to develop wearable systems that chronically monitor analytes in sweat and interstitial fluid. Potential applications include the artificial pancreas to achieve tight glucose regulation in diabetics comparable to that of healthy individuals, wound healing monitoring to prevent sepsis and infection, real-time quantification of hydration and exertion in high performance athletes, and heart failure monitoring in patients with cardiovascular diseases. This project will provide training opportunities via research experiences for female and underrepresented minority student researchers. To provider further opportunities for diverse audiences to engage with the research outcomes, educational products such as laboratory demonstrations and exercises will be developed that are suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students.The goal of this project is to leverage the recent discovery of wireless operation using the reflected impedance principle so that multiple unpowered microsensors can wirelessly communicate data capturing changes in electrochemical impedance. For this effort, we will utilize a core wearable platform consisting of a flexible microcoil, integrated thin film bridge capacitor, and sensing electrodes. An external reader wirelessly linked to the wearable platform completes the system. To advance ultra-compact form factor wireless multi-sensor systems, the major tasks include: (1) advancing the theory of wireless reflected impedance sensing, (2) determining factors that enable maximization of performance, (3) developing general design rules for reflected impedance systems that support multiple sensors, and (4) demonstrating under simulated conditions the wireless sensing of multiple analytes by reflected impedance. For the purpose of demonstration, tailored coatings will be applied to the sensing electrode as needed to achieve selectivity to well characterized markers: glucose, cortisol, and ions. The underlying principle of reflected impedance sensing is generalizable for application to other areas of biomedical sensing, including chronically implanted sensors. Adapting different functional coatings enable impedance-based detection of other analytes relevant to other disease conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.