Bio-inspired soft epidermal and wearable nanofiber electronics for wireless health monitoring

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Epidermal and wearable electronics have potential for temporal monitoring, objective analysis and communication of health signs, including pulse rate, blood pressure and limb and musculoskeletal movements, with important applications in tele-health, emergency care, posture monitoring and sports medicine. They can provide tactile sensation to prosthetic limbs controlled with brain-chip interfaces through accurate temporal/spatial sensing of pressure and deformation. This strategic proposal focuses on the development of novel, benign, conformable and stretchable nanofiber composite materials and manufacturing technologies, specifically targeted for high impact epidermal and wearable health monitoring applications. The project is based on the preliminary demonstrations for exceptionally-high gauge-factors (>60) in response to extensional strain stimuli, observed for a scalable mesh of metallized nanofibers with low noise and high repeatability; a sensitivity often observed for conventional piezoelectric ceramics with known issues related to toxicity, rigidity and large-area processability for health monitoring applications. A synergistic team of multidisciplinary researchers from UBC will work closely with three Canadian companies and engineering and medical experts for development of the bio-inspired soft nanofiber-based sensing skin technologies with potential for novel wireless health monitoring applications. Arrays of nanofiber sensors, having different functionalized segments for sensing different stimuli, will be interconnected using stretchable nanofiber-based interconnects with high stretchability and conformability. The sensor arrays will be connected to the readout circuits and data acquisition systems, with critical features such as low-power wireless connectivity and lossless signal processing for identification of relevant health signals. Prototypes of the epidermal and wearable sensing skin with major health and commercial benefits and high technological impact will be developed for applications such as Parkinson's monitoring and emergency care, in collaboration with our supporting organizations and medical experts in the field.