Flexible capacitive pressure sensor based on interdigital electrodes with porous microneedle arrays for physiological signal monitoring

Flexible pressure sensors have many potential applications in the monitoring of physiological signals because of their good biocompatibil-ity and wearability.However,their relatively low sensitivity,linearity,and stability have hindered their large-scale commercial application.Herein,aflexible capacitive pressure sensor based on an interdigital electrode structure with two porous microneedle arrays(MNAs)is pro-posed.The porous substrate that constitutes the MNA is a mixed product of polydimethylsiloxane and NaHCO3.Due to its porous and interdigital structure,the maximum sensitivity(0.07 kPa-1)of a porous MNA-based pressure sensor was found to be seven times higher than that of an imporous MNA pressure sensor,and it was much greater than that of aflat pressure sensor without a porous MNA structure.Finite-element analysis showed that the interdigital MNA structure can greatly increase the strain and improve the sensitivity of the sen-sor.In addition,the porous MNA-based pressure sensor was found to have good stability over 1500 loading cycles as a result of its bilayer parylene-enhanced conductive electrode structure.Most importantly,it was found that the sensor could accurately monitor the motion of afinger,wrist joint,arm,face,abdomen,eye,and Adam’s apple.Furthermore,preliminary semantic recognition was achieved by monitoring the movement of the Adam’s apple.Finally,multiple pressure sensors were integrated into a 33 array to detect a spatial pressure distribu-×tion.Compared to the sensors reported in previous works,the interdigital electrode structure presented in this work improves sensitivity and stability by modifying the electrode layer rather than the dielectric layer.

Recent progress and challenges in interdigital microbatteries:Fabrication, functionalization and integration

Currently,the increasing demands for portable,implantable,and wearable electronics have triggered the interest in miniaturized energy storage devices.Different from conventional energy storage devices,interdigital microbatteries(IMBs) are free of separators and prepared on a single substrate,potentially achieving a short ionic diffusion path and better performance.Meanwhile,they can be easily fabricated and integrated into on-chip miniaturized electronics,holding the promise to provide long-lasting power for advanced microelectronic devices.To date,while many seminal works have been reviewed the topic of microbatteries,there is no work that systematically summarizes the development of IMBs of high energy density and stable voltage platforms from fabrication,functionalization to integration.The current review focuses on the most recent progress in IMBs,discussing advanced micromachining techniques with compatible features to construct high-performance IMBs with smart functions and intelligent integrated systems.The future opportunities and challenges of IMBs are also highlighted,calling for more efforts in this dynamic and fast-growing research field.

Influence of bio-inspired flow channel designs on the performance of a PEM fuel cell

Performance of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC)is appreciably affected by the channel geometry.The branching structure of a plant leaf and human lung is an efficient network to distribute the nutrients in the respective systems.The same nutrient transport system can be mimicked in the flow channel design of a PEMFC,to aid even reactant distribution and better water management.In this work,the effect of bio-inspired flow field designs such as lung and leaf channel design bipolar plates,on the performance of a PEMFC was examined experimentally at various operating conditions.A PEMFC of 49 cm2 area,with a Nafion 212 membrane with a 40%catalyst loading of 0.4 mg·cm-2 on the anode side and also 0.6 mg·cm-2 on the cathode side is assembled by incorporating the bio-inspired channel bipolar plate,and was tested on a programmable fuel-cell test station.The impact of the working parameters like reactants’relative humidity(RH),back pressure and fuel cell temperature on the performance of the fuel cell was examined;the operating pressure remains constant at 0.1 MPa.It was observed that the best performance was attained at a back pressure of 0.3 MPa,75°C operating temperature and 100%RH.The three flow channels were also compared at different operating pressures ranging from 0.1 MPa to 0.3 MPa,and the other parameters such as operating temperature,RH and back pressure were set as 75°C,100%and 0.3 MPa.The experimental outcomes of the PEMFC with bio-inspired channels were compared with the experimental results of a conventional triple serpentine flow field.It was observed that among the different flow channel designs considered,the leaf channel design gives the best output in terms of power density.Further,the experimental results of the leaf channel design were compared with those of the interdigitated leaf channel design.The PEMFC with the interdigitated leaf channel design was found to generate 6.72%more power density than the non-interdigitated leaf channel design.The fuel cell with interdigitated leaf channel design generated5.58%more net power density than the fuel cell with non-interdigitated leaf channel design after considering the parasitic losses.

Simulation of the Internal Transport Phenomena for PEM Fuel Cells with Different Modes of Flow

A numerical model for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is developed, which can simulate such basic transport phenomena as gas-liquid two-phase flow in a working fuel cell. Boundary conditions for both the conventional and the interdigitated modes of flow are presented on a three-dimensional basis. Numerical techniques for this model are discussed in detail. Validation shows good agreement between simulating results and experimental data. Furthermore, internal transport phenomena are discussed and compared for PEM fuel cells with conventional and interdigitated flows. It is found that the dead-ended structure of an interdigitated flow does increase the oxygen mass fraction and decrease the liquid water saturation in the gas diffusion layer as compared to the conventional mode of flow. However, the cathode humidification is important for an interdigitated flow to acquire better performance than a conventional flow fuel cell.

Toward Flexible and Wearable Embroidered Supercapacitors from Cobalt Phosphides-Decorated Conductive Fibers

Wearable supercapacitors(SCs)are gaining prominence as portable energy storage devices.To develop high-performance wearable SCs,the significant relationship among material,structure,and performance inspired us with a delicate design of the highly wearable embroidered supercapacitors made from the conductive fibers composited.By rendering the conductive interdigitally patterned embroidery as both the current collector and skeleton for the SCs,the novel pseudocapacitive material cobalt phosphides were then successfully electrodeposited,forming the first flexible and wearable in-plane embroidery SCs.The electrochemical measurements manifested that the highest specific capacitance was nearly 156.6 mF cm?2(65.72 F g?1)at the current density of 0.6 mA cm?2(0.25 A g?1),with a high energy density of 0.013 mWh cm?2(5.55 Wh kg?1)at a power density of 0.24 mW cm?2(100 W kg?1).As a demonstration,a monogrammed pattern was ingeniously designed and embroidered on the laboratory gown as the wearable in-plane SCs,which showed both decent electrochemical performance and excellent flexibility.

RF design and study of a 325 MHz 7 Me V APF IH-DTL for an injector of a proton medical accelerator

A compact interdigital H-mode drift-tube linac (IH-DTL) with the alternating-phase-focusing (APF) method, working at 325 MHz was designed for an injector of a proton medical accelerator. When fed in with a proper RF (radio frequency) power, the DTL cavity could establish the corresponding electromagnetic field to accelerate the ‘‘proton bunches’’ from an input energy of 3 MeV to an output energy of 7 MeV successfully, without any additional radial focusing elements. The gap-voltage distribution which was obtained from the CST■ Microwave Studio software simulations of the axial electric field was compared with that from the beam dynamics, and the errors met the requirements within ± 5%. In this paper, the RF design procedure and key results of the APF IH-DTL, which include the main RF characteristics of the cavity, frequency sensitivities of the tuners, and coupling factor of the RF power input coupler are presented.

FOULING DETECTION IN FOOD VESSELS USING INTERDIGITAL LAMB WAVE TRANSDUCER

Lamb waves are used to detect fouling in food vessels. The propagation of the Lamb waves in plates exhibits many modes and dispersion characteristics, which have great influence on fouling detection. The relative distribution of the in-plane and out-of-plane displacement of the mode across the thickness of the plate will determine the sensitivity of the mode to a particular loading condition. By considering the dispersion and multi-mode characteristics of guided waves, an interdigital polyvi- nylidene fluoride （PVDF） transducer is designed to realize the mode selection of gnided waves, and a single a0 mode is used for guided wave detection. Fouling detection experiments are conducted in the laboratory using epoxy adhesive on a thin plate. Using the interdigital PVDF transducer, three fouled areas are detected. Using one of the time-frequency analysis methods, the waveforms are further processed. This also demonstrates the validity of this method of fouling detection.

Focusing of Surface Acoustic Wave on a Piezoelectric Crystal

We investigate the focusing phenomena of a surface acoustic wave （SAW） field generated by a circular-arc interdigital transducer （IDT） on a piezoelectric crystal. A rigorous vector field theory of surface excitation on the crystal we developed previously is used to evaluate the convergent SAW field instead of the prevalent scalar angular spectrum used in optics. The theoretical results show that the anisotropy of a medium has great impact on the focusing properties of the acoustic beams, such as focal length and symmetrical distributions near the focus. A dark field method is used in experiment to observe the focusing of the SAW tield optically. Although the convergent phenomena of SAW field on the anisotropic media or piezoelectric crystals are very complicated, the experimental data are in agreement with those from the rigorous theory.

The n-type Si-based materials applied on the front surface of IBC-SHJ solar cells

Interdigitated back contact silicon hetero-junction(IBC-SHJ) solar cells exhibit excellent performance owing to the IBC and SHJ structures.The front surface field(FSF) layer composed of electric field passivation and chemical passivation has been proved to play an important role in IBC-SHJ solar cells.The electric field passivated layer n^+-a-Si: H, an n-type Si alloy with carbon or oxygen in amorphous phase, is simulated in this study to investigate its effect on IBC-SHJ.It is indicated that the n^+-a-Si: H layer with wider band gap can reduce the light absorption on the front side efficaciously,which hinders the surface recombination of photo-generated carriers and thus contributes to the improvement of the short circuit current density Jsc.The highly doped n^+-a-Si: H can result in the remakable energy band bending, which makes it outstanding in the field passivation, while it makes little contribution to the chemical passivation.It is noteworthy that when the electric field intensity exceeds 1.3 × 10^5 V/cm, the efficiency decrease caused by the inferior chemical passivation is only 0.16%.In this study, the IBC-SHJ solar cell with a front n^+-a-Si: H field passivation layer is simulated, which shows the high efficiency of 26% in spite of the inferior chemical passivation on the front surface.

Polyaniline Based Gas Sensor for NO_2 by Langmuir-Blodgett Technology

In this paper,pure polyaniline (PAN:Emeraldine base (EB) form) films and the mixed LB films of PAN and acetic acid (AA) with various layers were prepared by Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique.PAN based gas sensors were fabricated by deposited PAN based LB thin films on the interdigitated electrodes.The gas-sensitivity to NO_2 of PAN based gas sensors with different layers was studied.It is found that pure polyaniline LB films present higher sensitivity,responsivity and reversibility to NO_2 gas compared with polyaniline and acetic acid mixed LB films.The response time of 3-layer and 15-layer pure polyaniline LB films to 20μg/g NO_2 gas is about 10 s and 30 s,respectively.The recovery time of the 15-layer pure polyaniline LB films is close to 5 min.

Chlorine Gas Sensors with HPS Film on Interdigitated Capacitors

The Cl2-sensitive heteropolysiloxanes(HPS) film was formed on the interdigital capacitor based on silicon dioxide by means of sol-gel process and spin-on technique.Measurements of interdigital capacitance were performed at room temperature for frequencies 100 Hz,1 kHz and 10 kHz.It is shown that there is a linear relationship between the capacitance and the concentration of chlorine gas.Influences of the measurement frequency and film thickness of silicate on the sensitivity of the sensor to C12 gas were discussed.And organically modified N,N-diethylaminopropyl-trimethoxysilane (APMS) had a much higher sensitivity.

Horizontal InAs nanowire transistors grown on patterned silicon-on-insulator substratea

High-density horizontal InAs nanowire transistors are fabricated on the interdigital silicon-on-insulator substrate.Hexagonal InAs nanowires are uniformly grown between face-to-face（111） vertical sidewalls of neighboring Si fingers by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The density of InAs nanowires is high up to 32 per group of silicon fingers,namely an average of 4 nanowires per micrometer. The electrical characteristics with a higher on/off current ratio of 2×10~5are obtained at room temperature. The silicon-based horizontal InAs nanowire transistors are very promising for future high-performance circuits.

Analysis of the interdigitated back contact solar cells:The n-type substrate lifetime and wafer thickness

The n-type silicon integrated-back contact（IBC） solar cell has attracted much attention due to its high efficiency,whereas its performance is very sensitive to the wafer of low quality or the contamination during high temperature fabrication processing, which leads to low bulk lifetime τbulk. In order to clarify the influence of bulk lifetime on cell characteristics, two-dimensional（2D） TCAD simulation, combined with our experimental data, is used to simulate the cell performances, with the wafer thickness scaled down under various τbulk conditions. The modeling results show that for the IBC solar cell with high τbulk,（such as 1 ms-2 ms）, its open-circuit voltage V oc almost remains unchanged, and the short-circuit current density J sc monotonically decreases as the wafer thickness scales down. In comparison, for the solar cell with low τbulk（for instance, 〈 500 μs） wafer or the wafer contaminated during device processing, the V oc increases monotonically but the J sc first increases to a maximum value and then drops off as the wafer＇s thickness decreases. A model combing the light absorption and the minority carrier diffusion is used to explain this phenomenon. The research results show that for the wafer with thinner thickness and high bulk lifetime, the good light trapping technology must be developed to offset the decrease in J sc.

Digital Dermatitis in Dairy Cattle Is Still a Serious Problem in Western Europe

Bacterial infections are quite common in dairy cattle,and frequently related to internal organ systems like e.g.respiratory,intestinal and udder infections.Lameness in dairy cattle is mainly caused by both infectious and non-infectious hoof problems and these have different etiological background.At the moment(2018)the major infectious hoof disorders are DD(Digital Dermatitis)and IP(Interdigital Phlegmon).These are all due to infection from the area where dairy cows normally live and more or less intensive contact with“contaminated”manure.This paper gives insight in these different dermatitis problems cows are daily confronted with,with a focus on infectious hoof disorders as a more or less permanent problem in today’s dairy farming.

Pspice Equivalent Circuit Model for Implementation of Surface Acoustic Wave Filter

The crystals of quartz,lithium,and piezoelectric ceramics have a piezoelectric effect as their major characteristic.The surface acoustic wave filter(SAWF) was designed by using this property.However,the experimental cost of the fabrication of SAWF is higher than that of mechanical filter or LC filter.Through the RLC(resistor,inductor and capacitor) network equivalent circuit and the interdigital transducer(IDT) equivalent circuit model,the electromotive force,the mechanical impedance of piezoelectric plate,and the wave number of Mason circuit model were researched.The equivalent circuit can be used to reduce product development costs and shorten the development cycle.Comparing simulation result by Pspice software with the theory of SAWF,the simulated waveform is similar to theory measurement,and the equivalent circuit model is verified.

Sol-Gel Relative Humidity Sensors: Impact of Electrode Geometry on Performance in Soil Suction Measurements

This paper describes the experimental procedure followed to fabricate and validate sol-gel based RH sensors which will be incorporated in soil specimens for standard laboratorial tests. It is the first time such sensors were used for soil suction measurement. They are microfabricated relative humidity sensors (footprint area 11,000 μm × 22,000 μm) operating based on changes in electrical resistivity detected by a cerium doped silica titania film deposited using a sol-gel technique. Their design required gathering experts in several engineering specialties. The working principle of the sensors is based on water vapour equilibrium between the air in the soil and in the sol-gel pores, due to the contact between the two porous materials. The spacing between interdigitated aluminium electrodes was optimized to improve the sensing properties of the sol-gel. The calibration of the different prototypes was done against compacted clay, varying the spacing between 100 and 700 μm. The sensors were also incorporated in soil samples for suction measurement during wetting and drying paths. They were validated by comparing the readings with those from a water dew point potentiometer. From this study it was possible to determine the optimum electrodes spacing of 200 μm. Error was explained by sol-gel heterogeneity effect and by the resolution of the sensing area provided by the electrodes spacing. When comparing with other sensors operating inside soil specimens in standard laboratorial tests, these sol-gel sensors extend the operation range available with the alternative technologies: while conventional tensiometers measure suction ranges from 0 to 1.8 MPa, our sensors demonstrate good results between 1 to 10 MPa (and higher).

Trace Level Gas Sensing Characteristics of Nano-Crystalline Silver Decamolybdate

A soft-chemical method has been developed for the synthesis of nano-crystalline powders of silver decamolybdate. Gas sensing characteristics of this composition both in porous pellet and thin film configurations were investigated. The compound Ag6Mo10O33 was found to sense selectively ammonia at 503 K. Above 503 K it has significant cross sensitivity to petroleum gas (PG). Spin coated thin films exhibited selective sensing towards PG.

Microchip Electrode Development for Traveling wave Dielectrophoresis of Non-Spherical Cell Suspensions

A microchip interdigitated electrode with a sequential signal generator has been developed for traveling wave dielectrophoresis (twDEP) of biological cell suspensions. The electrode was fabricated on a microscope glass slide and coated with a 0.5 μm thickness of gold through a sputtering technique which was designed for large-scale inductions of cells rather than for individual cells as in previous versions of our device. As designed for a representative cell size of 10 μm, the electrode array was 50 μm in width to allow large numbers (>106) of cells to be processed. The sequential signal generator produces an arbitrary AC quadrature-phase to generate traveling electric field for a microchip interdigitated electrode. Each phase signal can be automatically altered and alternated with the other phases within interval time of 0.01-30 seconds (controlled by programming). We demonstrate the system could be used to estimate the dielectric properties of the yeast Saccharomyces cerivisiae TISTR 5088, the green alga Tetraselmis sp. and human red blood cells (HRBCs) through curve-fitting of dielectro- phoretic velocities and critical frequencies.

A New 2D Double-layer Network Constructed from a 2D Single Layer

Two Zn（II） coordination polymers, namely [Zn2（bpy）（aobtc）（H2O）2]·2H2O（1） and [Zn2（bpy）（aobtc）（H2O）]·4H2O（2）（bpy = 4,4＇-bipyridine, H4 aobtc = 3,3＇,5,5＇-azoxybenzenetetracarboxylic acid） have been hydrothermally synthesized through tuning the p H value of the reaction system（1, C（26）H（22）N（4）O（13）Zn2, Mr = 729.21; 2, C（26）H（24）N4O（14）Zn2, Mr = 747.23）, and their structures have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses. Compound 2 has been further characterized by infrared spectra（IR）, elemental analyses, thermal analyses and powder X-ray diffraction（PXRD） analyses. Additionally, the photoluminescence of 2 is also discussed. The structure demonstrates that the crystal of 2 belongs to the triclinic system, space group P1 with a = 8.41494（18）, b = 9.59838（19）, c = 17.6477（3） ？, α = 91.5098（16）, β = 98.1439（17）, γ = 90.4323（17）°, V = 1410.44（5） ^3, Z = 2, ρcalc = 1.759 g/cm^3, μ = 2.819 mm-1, F（000） = 760.0, R = 0.0311 and w R = 0.0839（I 〉 2σ（I））. Compound 1 shows a two-dimensional monolayer while compound 2 displays a novel 2D double-layered network constructed from monolayer motifs, which is similar to the single layer in 1. Further, each bilayer motif in 2 is interdigitated by two others in a parallel fashion to yield an unusual 2D → 3D interdigitated framework.

CEVA收购InterDigital的Hillcrest Labs智能传感器技术业务

并购吸纳的高度互补传感器处理技术已助力超1亿台设备,将扩展CEVA智能和互联技术产品组合CEVA,全球领先的智能和互联设备信号处理平台和人工智能处理器IP授权许可厂商(纳斯达克股票交易所代码:CEVA),宣布向InterDigital, Inc.收购Hillcrest Laboratories, Inc.(Hillcrest Labs)业务。Hillcrest Labs是消费电子产品和物联网(IoT)设备中传感器处理软件和组件的全球领先供应商。