EDIBLES: Environmentally Driven Body-Scale Electromagnetic Co-Sensing

几十年来，人们一直在研究普遍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，这可能会彻底改变医疗保健行业，从而实现新一代的预测诊断。然而，作为这些传感器核心的电子设备代表着日益严重的环境紧急情况。传统的电子制造工艺非常耗电和耗水，并且不断消耗有限的关键原材料储备。此外，在其寿命结束时，会产生废弃电气和电子设备（WEBs），并通常运往海外拆解设施，这些设施主要是人工拆解，对环境和当地社区都有风险;英国目前是世界上第二大WEBs生产国/人。除非出现一种替代的可穿戴传感模式，否则日常服装的传感器化将增加Wendy的指数增长，而电子工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人体尺度电磁共感（EDIBLES）该方法使下一代可穿戴设备能够大幅减少其从摇篮到坟墓生命周期的环境影响。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）电子产品融合在一起。在柔性和可生物降解的基材上印刷，如生态织物和纸张，我们将展示第一个可生物降解的微波组件，其性能与金属纳米粒子墨水相匹配。我们的制造过程将是卷对卷友好的，可扩展到非常大的区域（>1平方米），并且不需要洁净室或昂贵的基础设施。我们将证明，印刷的有机RF结构可以匹配高达110 GHz的金属基非生物降解和非生物相容性对应物的性能，并开发基于聚合物和2D材料的在亚太赫兹频率（700至1，100 GHz）下工作的传感结构。该项目的高潮是一个新的示范，可食用服装。EDIBLES服装，结合我们新的读出机制，将能够无线测量，在米范围内，人体运动，生命体征和环境条件，在多用户环境中的多个主题。EDIBLES服装将是一个零垃圾演示与组件，无论是可生物降解或可回收，没有特殊的拆卸程序的要求。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和STEM外展活动中展示可持续无线技术的全部潜力。EDIBLES不仅开发技术，还支持和倡导研究界和相关行业利益相关者使用该技术。由于我们的方法将与无线传感领域的两位研究领导者，罗马Tor Vergata大学的Gaetano Marrocco教授和不列颠哥伦比亚省大学的Mohammad Zarifi教授共同创建，该团队将支持无线传感器的可持续性驱动设计，将确定的指导方针扩展到他们小组的活动中。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举办国际可持续无线技术会议来倡导这一点，使来自英国各地的跨学科专家与我们的国际合作伙伴关系建立联系。

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.