Electronics


moment now. Machine learning, robotics, remote sensing tech and the development of wearable and self-powering medical devices are transforming the jobs of medical experts and enhancing patient care. Huanyu “Larry” Cheng is an associate professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State University whose research is focused on developing new stretchable and conformable electronic sensing devices. After completing his PhD training in 2015, Cheng established a research group with a focus on engineering low-cost, deformable multimodality sensors for biomarker measurements and health monitoring. In his eight years since joining the department, Cheng has built sensing tech that would fit comfortably in a science fiction film, including a technique for printing biodegradable electronics onto complex surfaces and a wearable head-scanner. “This new class of stretchable devices provides an alternative approach for integrating electronics on a soft, stretchable substrate and is designed to match the physical properties of soft skin and tissues,” explains Cheng. He adds that the technology is built to monitor a variety of vital signs, including temperature, heart and respiration rates, blood pressure and oxygen saturation as well as electrophysiological signals. Cheng’s team has focused on developing manufacturing methods for its sensing devices that are innovative yet simple and universal, like adapting commercial off-the-shelf chips for extended data processing for use in wearables. Designed to integrate with soft skin-interfaced microfluidic devices, the research group’s biophysical and biochemical sensors can perform functions such as sweat collection and analysis at a significantly improved accuracy, according to Cheng. “Skin-interfaced microfluidic platforms are capable of capturing, storing, and assessing other biofluids like tears, saliva, and interstitial fluids to provide essential insight into human physiological health,” he says. The sensing devices developed by the Penn State research group are engineered to give preventive monitoring and early diagnostic data to patients who don’t have to be confined to a specific space, like their homes or a doctor’s office for the technology to work.


Medical Device Developments / www.nsmedicaldevices.com


Cheng’s team currently has multiple sensing devices on track for FDA approval, including a novel wearable sensor platform designed to improve diagnosis options for high-risk deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that’s being developed in collaboration with Actuated Medical Inc (AMI). “My group has developed a laser-induced graphene-based, wireless, resistive sensor technology capable of 2D mapping of skin temperature when worn directly or integrated into conformal clothing,” explains Cheng. Carefully constructed to conform to the patient’s body on contact, the wearable device leverages electrical van der Waals interactions – weak electrostatic forces that attract neutral molecules


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