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

对于用于健康监测、可穿戴传感、机器人和假肢应用的敏感、灵活和低成本的压力传感解决方案的需求日益增长。这项提议描述了一项平移研究计划，该计划旨在开发高灵敏度的压力传感设备，以超精细的空间分辨率绘制压力分布图。通过在完全透明、灵活和自适应的平台中提供前所未有的灵敏度和超快的响应时间，建议的传感技术提供了固态压力传感器的强大替代方案。潜在的应用可以与现有的医疗应用相集成：由于其低成本和灵活的设计，该传感器可以很容易地集成到现有的医疗设备(例如，一次性导管)中，用于生理压力监测；以及具有数字感觉的人造皮肤：我们的超灵敏和灵活的传感器薄膜可以集成到手套的柔软指尖表面，以刺激触觉。与现有的压力传感技术相比，提出的微浮子式传感器具有几个独特的优势：超高灵敏度、低成本、快速机械响应、超薄外形、柔软的皮肤结构、稳定的传感单元和光学透明度。该团队率先开发的微流体传感设备在一系列非传统应用中表现出了希望，在这些应用中，微量的液体传感元件通过改变物理属性或几何形状来快速响应外部负载。

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.