Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Li, Yajing
• Ma, Yinji
• Wei, Chen
• Luan, Haiwen
• Xu, Shuai
• Han, Mengdi
• Zhao, Hangbo
• Liang, Cunman
• Yang, Quansan
• Yang, Yiyuan
• Crawford, Kaitlyn E.
• Feng, Xue
• Huang, Yonggang
• Rogers, John A.

Titel

Thin, Millimeter Scale Fingernail Sensors for Thermal Characterization of Nail Bed Tissue

Ist Teil von

• Advanced functional materials, 2018-07, Vol.28 (30), p.n/a

Ort / Verlag

Hoboken: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Wiley-Blackwell Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Thin, flexible, body‐worn technologies that allow precise, quantitative monitoring of physiological status are of broad current interest due to their potential to improve the cost and effectiveness of healthcare. Although the surface of the skin represents one of the most widely explored points of integration, recently developed millimeter scale wireless sensor platforms allow deployment on alternative surfaces of the body, such as the finger/toenails and the teeth. The work described here introduces a collection of ideas in materials science, device engineering and computational techniques that enables precise characterization of the thermal transport characteristics of the nail bed tissue from measurements on the surface of the nail. Systematic in vitro studies demonstrate the underlying measurement principles, the theoretical models for optimized sensor design and the associated experimental procedures for determining the thermal conductivity of the tissue. Measurements performed on human subjects highlight capabilities in tracking changes in perfusion of the nail bed tissues in response to various external stimuli. Thin, flexible sensors mounted on the fingernails allow for precise characterization of the thermal transport properties of the nailbed tissue, as an unusual approach for quantitative monitoring of physiological status. The work establishes a fundamental base of knowledge on the thermal physics associated with subsurface tissue characterization, and a scheme for health monitoring with the fingernail as a measurement location.