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

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.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Materials Science & Engr

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Webb, Richard Chad

Contributors dc:contributor

• Rogers, John A.
• Cahill, David G.
• Cunningham, Brian T.
• Kilian, Kristopher A.

• Flexible electronics
• Stretchable electronics
• Biosensors

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2015 Richard Chad Webb

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/98322