Ultra low power flexible electronics for next generation wearable devices

可穿戴技术正在对健康和社会保健产生变革性影响。2019年Topol对NHS数字技术的审查强调，到2040年，可穿戴设备将影响80%的当前护理模式。NHS的长期计划预测人们可以毫不费力地在家里监测他们的生理状况，目的是创建一个编程接口，允许可穿戴设备直接进入临床工作流程。NHS @home已经为患者提供远程监控设备，以增加家庭护理的使用，启用“虚拟病房”，并提供更个性化的护理。然而，当前的可穿戴设备具有广泛的限制。它们通常由传统的刚性或半刚性电子器件制成，这些电子器件不符合身体，也不随着皮肤的运动而伸展和弯曲。监测的参数集中在活动和心脏监测等方面，而不考虑大量不同的生物标志物，如汗液和光照。关于数据质量和设备的可用性以及数据隐私和安全考虑的问题一直存在。这个博士学位的目标是推进下一代可穿戴设备的电子方面的最新技术。这涉及一个混合的重点。首先，在使用混合集成方法的柔性电子器件上。在这种情况下，传统的微芯片被安装到柔性（通常是塑料）衬底上，使得整个器件与当前器件相比可以更自由地弯曲和挠曲。这就需要研究组件安装方法，并在这些柔性基板上制作完整的系统，包括电池、微处理器、无线连接等。第二，增加仪器，以便测量其他参数。我们预计将探索曝光，紫外线曝光和基于电化学的汗液传感，根据临床和非临床合作者和共同设计者的观点需求，权衡在这些不同因素上花费的时间。主要的研究挑战将是在保持低功耗和准确性时，移动到一个微型的形状因子的仪器。

Wearable technologies are having a transformative impact on health and social care. The 2019 Topol review of digital technologies for the NHS highlighted wearables as impacting 80% of current models of care by 2040. The NHS long term plan predicts people effortlessly monitoring their physiology at home, with an aim of creating a programming interface to allow wearable devices to feed directly into clinical workflows. NHS @home is already providing remote monitoring devices to patients to increase the use of at home care, enable 'virtual wards', and to provide more personalised care. However, current wearables have a wide number of limitations. They are commonly made with conventional rigid, or semi-rigid, electronics which do not conform to the body nor stretch and flex with movement of the skin. The parameters monitored focus on aspects such as activity and heart monitoring, and do not consider a wide number of different biomarkers such as sweat and light exposure. There are ongoing questions about the data quality, and the usability of devices, together with data privacy and security considerations. This PhD is aiming to advance the state of the art in the electronics aspects of next generation wearable devices. This involves a mixed focus. Firstly, on flexible electronics using a hybrid integration approach. In this, conventional microchips are mounted onto a flexible (typically plastic) substrate such that the overall device can bend and flex much more freely compared to current devices. This necessitates studies in to component mounting approaches, together with work to make a complete system on these flexible substrates, including the battery, microprocessor, wireless connectivity and similar. Secondly, on adding instrumentation to allow additional parameters to be measured. We anticipate exploring light exposure, ultra-violet light exposure, and electrochemical based sweat sensing, trading-off the time spent on these different factors depending on the views needs of clinical and non-clinical collaborators and co-designers. The principal research challenge will be in maintaining low power consumption and accuracy when moving this instrumentation to a miniature form factor.