University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Flexible, stretchable, biointegrated arrays of electronic thermal sensors and actuators for advancements in clinical medicine

Webb, Richard Chad

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Movie C2.mp4
Movie C3.mp4
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WEBB-DISSERTATION-2015.pdf

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/98322

Description

Title
Flexible, stretchable, biointegrated arrays of electronic thermal sensors and actuators for advancements in clinical medicine
Author(s)
Webb, Richard Chad
Issue Date
2015-07-14
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Rogers, John A.
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Rogers, John A.
Committee Member(s)
  • Cahill, David G.
  • Cunningham, Brian T.
  • Kilian, Kristopher A.
Department of Study
Materials Science & Engineerng
Discipline
Materials Science & Engr
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Date of Ingest
2017-09-29T17:52:41Z
Keyword(s)
  • Flexible electronics
  • Stretchable electronics
  • Biosensors
Abstract
Continuous, precision measurements of thermal information related to the human body can provide significant insights into important physiological phenomena, such as blood flow changes, stress, infection and thermoregulation. However, technologies to-date have either been hindered by a high sensitivity to motion artifacts, or have been too bulky and intrusive to be viable for ubiquitous, continuous use outside of a clinic. In addition to mechanical bulk, current skin-mounted technologies for measurements of skin properties do not provide spatial mapping, which is critical to arriving at the most important results. Here we present a class of devices that conform to skin in an intimate, non-intrusive way to provide high precision mapping of temperature and thermal transport signals on skin and other soft tissues. We demonstrate arrays of ultrathin (total thickness <5 µm), flexible, stretchable, skin-conforming devices that map temperatures to a precision (<20 mK) exceeding that of sophisticated infrared cameras for clinical research. We establish the foundational mechanical, electrical and thermal physics and associated design strategies that are necessary for high performance device function. We extend these techniques to the spatial mapping of thermal transport properties on skin, validated in clinical studies at external facilities with comparisons to commercial tools. Additional applications of the physical principles in varied designs enable a new form of minimally invasive continuous blood flow mapping, as well as designs towards the continuous measurement of core body temperature. Specialized mechanical design techniques, which enable reliable transfer printing of devices with arbitrary geometries without sacrificing stretchability, enable additional classes of stretchable electronics with features down to 1.5 µm. Extensions of the design, fabrication and thermal transport principles enable the printing of ultrathin electronic sensor and actuator arrays onto superelastic surgical guidewires down to 350 µm in diameter.
Graduation Semester
2015-08
Type of Resource
text
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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/98322
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2015 Richard Chad Webb

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Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois