According to business intelligence firm Market Research Future, the wearable medical device market is growing at just over 27 percent annually and is projected to reach $174 trillion by 2030. Given the technology's potential to provide monitoring and health diagnostics 24/7, its future growth could exceed these numbers. The U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, in partnership with the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME), is helping make that future a reality by developing a skin device at a high-tech doctor". at your fingertips and an instant call.
Future wearable electronics could potentially detect health conditions even before obvious symptoms appear, according to a press release from Argonne National Laboratory. The devices can also perform customized analysis of health monitoring data, reducing the need for wireless transmission.
Collecting and processing large amounts of data using very little energy in a small space requires a technology called neuromorphic computing, the researchers said. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology mimics the way the brain works by training on previous data sets and learning from experience. Benefits include compatibility with tensile materials, lower power consumption and higher speed compared to other types of AI, according to a press release.
Another key challenge for the team was integrating electronics into a supple material like leather. The semiconductor used in today's rugged electronic devices such as cell phones is usually a solid silicon chip. No matter how technologically advanced a wearable device is, it is known that user adoption drops significantly when the device is uncomfortable to wear. The material used for the semiconductor not only had to be conductive, but also very flexible.
The research team's skin-like neuromorphic chip is made of a thin plastic semiconductor film coupled with stretchable gold nanowire electrodes. Three types of plastics were used in the construction, researcher Sihong Wang told PlasticsToday . organo-hydrogel as an electrolyte; and a polydimethylsiloxane ( PDMS) elastomeric substrate. Although the device was twice as large, it performed as intended without cracking.
To test the concept, the researchers created an artificial intelligence device and trained it to distinguish healthy electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from four different signals that indicate health problems. After training, the device was more than 95% efficient in correctly identifying ECG signals.
Exposure to intense X-rays showed how the molecules that make up the device's skin-like material rearranged themselves, doubling in length. These findings have provided molecular-level information to better understand the properties of materials, Argonne National Laboratory said.