The smart stick-on tattoo that could save your life: Air Force funds wireless medical sensors set to revolutionise medicine

  • New circuits can transmit high speed data about patient's health
  • Could allow health care staff to monitor patients remotely and wirelessly  

A radical new smart tattoo could allow medical sensors to become wireless - radically changing everything from ER rooms to warfare.

The Air Force funded research has created a new way to wirelessly transmit data with a flexible, stretchable circuit.

It could change everything from smart watches to operating theatre systems

The radical new smart tattoo could allow medical sensors to become wireless - changing everything from ER rooms to warfare.

The radical new smart tattoo could allow medical sensors to become wireless - changing everything from ER rooms to warfare.

HOW THEY WORK 

The tattoos contain two ultra-tiny intertwining power transmission lines in repeating S-curves.

This serpentine shape — formed in two layers with segmented metal blocks, like a 3-D puzzle — gives the transmission lines the ability to stretch without affecting their performance. 

It also helps shield the lines from outside interference and, at the same time, confine the electromagnetic waves flowing through them, almost completely eliminating current loss. 

The researchers' new stretchable integrated circuits are just 25 micrometers (or .025 millimeters) thick. 

'We've found a way to integrate high-frequency active transistors into a useful circuit that can be wireless,' said Zhenqiang 'Jack' Ma of the University of Wisconsin—Madison.

'This is a platform. 

'This opens the door to lots of new capabilities.' 

Ma, whose work was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. 

The team created the world's fastest stretchable, wearable integrated circuits, an advance that could drive the Internet of Things and a much more connected, high-speed wireless world.

Led by Zhenqiang 'Jack' Ma, the Lynn H. Matthias Professor in Engineering and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in electrical and computer engineering at UW–Madison, the researchers published details of these powerful, highly efficient integrated circuits today, May 27, 2016, in the journal Advanced Functional Materials.

The advance is a platform for manufacturers seeking to expand the capabilities and applications of wearable electronics — including those with biomedical applications. 

In an intensive care unit, epidermal electronic systems (electronics that adhere to the skin like temporary tattoos) could allow health care staff to monitor patients remotely and wirelessly, increasing patient comfort by decreasing the customary tangle of cables and wires.

What makes the new, stretchable integrated circuits so powerful is their unique structure, inspired by twisted-pair telephone cables. 

The new system would allow wireless medical to transmit data to nearby computers, rather than having wires attached to patients.

The new system would allow wireless medical to transmit data to nearby computers, rather than having wires attached to patients.

They contain, essentially, two ultra-tiny intertwining power transmission lines in repeating S-curves.

This serpentine shape — formed in two layers with segmented metal blocks, like a 3-D puzzle — gives the transmission lines the ability to stretch without affecting their performance. 

It also helps shield the lines from outside interference and, at the same time, confine the electromagnetic waves flowing through them, almost completely eliminating current loss. 

The researchers' new stretchable integrated circuits are just 25 micrometers (or .025 millimeters) thick. 

That's tiny enough to be highly effective in epidermal electronic systems, among many other applications.

Ma's group has been developing what are known as transistor active devices for the past decade.

This latest advance marries the researchers' expertise in both high-frequency and flexible electronics.