Wearable, textile-based self-powered sensors for health monitoring

Start to be confirmed

Objective
This project aims to develop a smart textile biosensor that uses radiofrequency identification (RFID) tag technology to enable self-powering and transmission of the acquired physiological signal. The sensor will consist of an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT): an amplifying device with demonstrated bio-applications, including conformable and chemical sensors.

The flexible biocompatible devices based on organic materials can be integrated directly into electro-responsive tissues it will be capable of sense and process the bioelectric signal without additional wiring, reducing its invasiveness.

Background
Digital sensors for healthcare monitoring have an extraordinary development in the recent years. Advanced functionalities with minimal invasiveness are the key requirement to provide comfort while bringing healthcare to patients’ homes. Most commercially available devices share a common engineering paradigm consisting of blocks of electronic materials and components (i.e. metal contacts, silicon chips, batteries), which are rigid, planar, and heavy and must be mounted on top of textile. Due to these characteristics, devices loosely couple with human tissues and use bulky backend connectivity: two main challenges for real-world applications.

Self-powered wireless electronic wearable systems could enable continuous monitoring and transmission of physiological signals, for example, in sweat, without requiring an external power supply or bulky wires: a solution that envisages shifting the focus of medical applications from post-incident remedies to self-monitoring and prevention.

About the Digital Futures Postdoc Fellow
Lorenzo Travaglini completed his PhD at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales in 2021 with his thesis entitled “Flexible Organic Electronics for Biosignal Amplification”. His project was highly interdisciplinary, combining aspects of material science, physics, and polymer chemistry. Throughout his PhD, Dr Travaglini developed skills in synthesis/fabrication, processing and characterization of flexible bioelectronic devices for medical applications. His expertise includes advanced fabrication techniques, such as photolithography, and the design/operation of equipment for highly sensitive optoelectronic measurements of bioelectronic devices in the aqueous environment. He continued as a postdoc in Mawad’s group. He developed a flexible complementary circuit built from two identical p-type organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) able to amplify a voltage input paving the way to more advanced electronics featuring OECTs.

While his background in applied physics has given him the expertise needed to develop, design, and characterize electronic devices and circuits, working in Hamedi’s Lab will provide Dr Travaglini with skills in advanced e-textile fabrication, smart inks and wearable device application for bio-applications. In this respect, Dr Travaglini will gain expertise in e-textile-based and advanced manufacturing and characterization techniques.

Main supervisor
Max Hamedi, KTH

Co-supervisor
Martin Jacobsson, KTH
Erica Zeglio, KTH