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

Webb, Richard Chad

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

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

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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