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Capabilities for continuous monitoring of pressures and temperatures at critical skin interfaces can help to guide care strategies that minimize the potential for pressure injuries in hospitalized patients or in individuals confined to the bed. This paper introduces a soft, skin-mountable class of sensor system for this purpose. The design includes a pressure-responsive element based on membrane deflection and a battery-free, wireless mode of operation capable of multi-site measurements at strategic locations across the body. Such devices yield continuous, simultaneous readings of pressure and temperature in a sequential readout scheme from a pair of primary antennas mounted under the bedding and connected to a wireless reader and a multiplexer located at the bedside. Experimental evaluation of the sensor and the complete system includes benchtop measurements and numerical simulations of the key features. Clinical trials involving two hemiplegic patients and a tetraplegic patient demonstrate the feasibility, functionality and long-term stability of this technology in operating hospital settings.

Repositioning is a common guideline for the prevention of pressure injuries of bedridden or wheelchair patients. However, frequent repositioning could deteriorate the quality of patient's life and induce secondary injuries. This paper introduces a method for continuous multi-site monitoring of pressure and temperature distribution from strategically deployed sensor arrays at skin interfaces via battery-free, wireless ionic liquid pressure sensors. The wirelessly delivered power enables stable operation of the ionic liquid pressure sensor, which shows enhanced sensitivity, negligible hysteresis, high linearity and cyclic stability over relevant pressure range. The experimental investigations of the wireless devices, verified by numerical simulation of the key responses, support capabilities for real-time, continuous, long-term monitoring of the pressure and temperature distribution from multiple sensor arrays. Clinical trials on two hemiplegic patients confined on bed or wheelchair integrated with the system demonstrate the feasibility of sensor arrays for a decrease in pressure and temperature distribution under minimal repositioning.

Description, Thermoforming is a versatile technique to fabricate stretchable and customizable 3DEs for a variety of wearable applications., Recently, three-dimensional electronics (3DE) is attracting huge interest owing to the increasing demands for seamless integration of electronic systems on 3D curvilinear surfaces. However, it is still challenging to fabricate 3DE with high customizability, conformability, and stretchability. Here, we present a fabrication method of 3DE based on predistorted pattern generation and thermoforming. Through this method, custom-designed 3DE is fabricated through the thermoforming process. The fabricated 3DE has high 3D conformability because the thermoforming process enables the complete replication of both the overall shape and the surface texture of the 3D mold. Furthermore, the usage of thermoplastic elastomer and a liquid metal–based conductive electrode allows for high thermoformability during the device fabrication as well as high stretchability during the device operation. We believe that this technology can enable a wide range of new functionalities and multiscale 3D morphologies in wearable electronics.

Capabilities for continuous monitoring of pressures and temperatures at critical skin interfaces can help to guide care strategies that minimize the potential for pressure injuries in hospitalized patients or in individuals confined to the bed. This paper introduces a soft, skin-mountable class of sensor system for this purpose. The design includes a pressure-responsive element based on membrane deflection and a battery-free, wireless mode of operation capable of multi-site measurements at strategic locations across the body. Such devices yield continuous, simultaneous readings of pressure and temperature in a sequential readout scheme from a pair of primary antennas mounted under the bedding and connected to a wireless reader and a multiplexer located at the bedside. Experimental evaluation of the sensor and the complete system includes benchtop measurements and numerical simulations of the key features. Clinical trials involving two hemiplegic patients and a tetraplegic patient demonstrate the feasibility, functionality and long-term stability of this technology in operating hospital settings., Uninterrupted monitoring of pressure and temperature at skin interfaces can help to minimize the potential for pressure injuries in hospitalized or bedridden patients. Here, the authors introduce a soft, skin-mountable sensor that can continuously provide readings via antennas mounted under bedding, and demonstrate the functionality and robustness of the devices on patients.

In the field of soft strain sensors, piezo-transmittance based strain sensors, which detect strains by optical transmittance change, have promising advantages of fast response, high sensitivity, long-term stability, and negligible effect from environmental factors. However, they feature low sensor-to-sensor and in-sensor uniformity as well as unpredictable response and high stiffness. This study exploits the gap control of an auxetic-patterned elastomer to develop a piezo-transmittance based strain sensor. Gap opening mechanism in the negative Poisson’s ratio metamaterial with rotating square structures makes the sensor free from these limitations; thus, achieving a designable response and low stiffness. In addition, high sensor-to-sensor ((root-mean-square deviation (RSD)