EDIBLES: Environmentally Driven Body-Scale Electromagnetic Co-Sensing

数十年来，人们一直在研究广泛监测健康和康复个体的活动、生命体征和生物标志物的能力，这可能会使医疗保健行业发生革命性变化，从而实现新一代预测性诊断。然而，电子设备，这类传感器的心脏，代表着日益严重的环境紧急情况。传统的电子制造工艺耗电耗水，并不断消耗有限的关键原材料储备。此外，在废弃的电子电气设备(WEEE)被产生后，通常被运往以人工为主的海外拆卸设施，这对环境和当地社区都有风险；英国目前是世界上第二大WEEE/人均生产国。除非出现另一种可穿戴传感模式，否则日常服装的感应化将推动废旧电子产品的指数增长，电子行业将不可避免地因无法找到替代的可持续材料而受到阻碍。这项合作研究的愿景是开发一种环境驱动的身体规模的电磁协同传感(可食用)方法，使下一代可穿戴设备能够大幅减少其从摇篮到坟墓的生命周期对环境的影响。我们将开发一种方法，将无源、可生物降解和无芯片的无线电磁传感器与可回收的射频识别(RFID)电子设备融合在一起。印刷在柔性和可生物降解的基材上，如生态织物和纸张，我们将展示第一个可生物降解的微波元件，其性能与金属纳米颗粒油墨相匹配。我们的制造工艺将是卷对卷友好的，可扩展到非常大的(&gt；1平方米)区域，不需要洁净室或昂贵的基础设施。我们将展示印刷有机射频结构可以与高达110 GHz的金属基不可生物降解和非生物兼容结构的性能相媲美，并基于聚合物和2D材料开发工作在亚太赫兹频率(700至1100 GHz)的传感结构。该项目的高潮是一种新的演示--可食用服装。这种可食用服装与我们新的读出机制相结合，将能够在多用户环境中以无线方式测量多个对象的人体运动、生命体征和环境条件，测量范围可达几米。这种可食用服装将是一种零废电子产品演示，其成分可以是可生物降解的，也可以是可回收的，不需要特殊的拆卸程序。该演示将用于吸引行业用户，通过开源工具促进可持续电子设计，并在三个国际机构的公众参与计划和STEM外联活动中展示可持续无线技术的全部潜力。EDIBLES超越了开发技术的范围，向研究界和相关行业利益攸关方倡导和倡导使用该技术。由于我们的方法将与罗马Tor Vergata大学的Gaetano Marrocco教授和不列颠哥伦比亚大学的Mohammad Zarifi教授这两位无线传感领域的研究负责人共同创建，该团队将支持无线传感器的可持续发展驱动设计，将确定的指南扩展到他们团队的活动中。我们将通过在领先的国际研讨会上举办研讨会和在格拉斯哥主办国际可持续无线技术会议来倡导这一点，邀请来自英国各地的跨学科专家加强与我们的国际合作伙伴关系的参与。

The ability to pervasively monitor the activities, vital signs, and biomarkers of healthy and recovering individuals has been investigated for decades, and could revolutionise the healthcare sector enabling a new generation of predictive diagnostics. Electronic devices, the heart of such sensors, however, represent a growing environmental emergency. Traditional electronic fabrication processes are extremely power and water hungry and are constantly depleting a finite reserve of critical raw materials. Moreover, at their end-of-life, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is generated and typically shipped to overseas disassembly facilities which are predominantly manual, risking both the environment and the local communities; the UK is currently the world's 2nd largest producer of WEEE/capita. Unless an alternative wearable sensing paradigm emerges, the sensorisation of everyday garments will add to this exponential growth in WEEE, and the electronics industry will inevitably be stunted by its inability to find alternative sustainable materials.The vision of this collaborative research is to develop an Environmentally Driven Body-Scale Electromagnetic Co-Sensing (EDIBLES) methodology that enables the next generation of wearables to drastically reduce the environmental impact of its cradle-to-grave life cycle. We will develop a methodology for fusing passive, biodegradable, and chip-free wireless electromagnetic sensors with recyclable radio frequency identification (RFID) electronics. Printed on flexible and biodegradable substrates such as eco fabrics and paper, we will demonstrate the first biodegradable microwave components with performance matching that of metal nanoparticle inks. Our fabrication process will be roll-to-roll-friendly, scalable to very large (>1 square metre) areas, and will not require cleanrooms or costly infrastructure. We will demonstrate that printed organic RF structures can match the performance of the metal-based non-biodegradable and non-biocompatible counterparts up to 110 GHz and develop sensing structures operating at sub-THz frequencies (700 to 1,100 GHz) based on polymers and 2D materials. The project is culminated by a novel demonstrator, the EDIBLES garment. The EDIBLES garment, combined with our new read-out mechanism, will be capable of wirelessly measuring, at a metres-range, human motion, vital signs, and environmental conditions, for multiple subjects in a multi-user environment. The EDIBLES garment will be a zero-WEEE demo with components that are either biodegradable or recyclable, with no requirement for special disassembly procedures. The demo will be used to engage industry users, promote sustainable electronics design through an open-source tool, and in a programme of public engagement and STEM outreach activities across the three international institutions, showing the full potential of sustainable wireless technologies.EDIBLES reaches beyond developing the technology to championing and advocating its use to the research community and relevant industry stakeholders. As our methodology will be co-created with two research leaders in wireless sensing, Prof. Gaetano Marrocco from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Prof. Mohammad Zarifi from the University of British Columbia, the team will champion the sustainability-driven design of wireless sensors, extending the identified guidelines to the activities of their group. We will advocate this through workshops at leading international symposia and by hosting an international sustainable wireless technologies meeting in Glasgow, bringing interdisciplinary experts from across the UK to grow the engagement with our international partnership.