Flexible Microsystems Laboratory

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Actuator, valve actuator unit and valve

Fabio Beco Albuquerque, Herbert Shea

An actuator (22) comprises at least one actuator body (32) of dielectric elastomeric material and two electrodes (34, 36) being attached to opposite surfaces of the actuator body (32), respectively. At least one of the actuator body (32) and at least one of the electrodes (34, 36) is at least partly covered at its outer side with a protective layer (38a, 38b) of polymer material, wherein a mechanical stiffness of the protective layer (38a, 38b) is at least three times lower than a mechanical stiffness of the actuator body (32). Moreover, a valve actuator unit comprises such an actuator (22) and a housing, wherein the actuator (22) is arranged within the housing and the remainder of the housing is filled with a gas. Additionally, a valve comprises such a valve actuator unit and a valve element, wherein the valve element is movable by the valve actuator unit.

2022

Antibody-Coated Wearable Organic Electrochemical Transistors for Cortisol Detection in Human Sweat

Danick Briand, Silvia Demuru, Marwan El Chazli, Jaemin Kim

The dysregulation of the hormone cortisol is related to several pathological states, and its monitoring could help prevent severe stress, fatigue, and mental diseases. While wearable antibody-based biosensors could allow real-time and simple monitoring of antigens, an accurate and low-cost antibody-based cortisol detection through electro-chemical methods is considerably challenging due to its low concentration and the high ionic strength of real biofluids. Here, a label-free and fast sensor for cortisol detection is proposed based on antibody-coated organic electrochemical transistors. The developed devices show unprecedented high sensitivities of 50 mu A/dec for cortisol sensing in high-ionic-strength solutions with effective cortisol detection demonstrated with real human sweat. The sensing mechanism is analyzed through impedance spectroscopy and confirmed with electrical models. Compared to existing methods requiring bulky and expensive laboratory equipment, these wearable devices enable point-of-care cortisol detection in 5 min with direct sweat collection for personalized well-being monitoring.

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2022

3D printing of elastomeric mechanical sensors designed for human motion monitoring

Ryan Mitchell van Dommelen

In this thesis several advances are made to the emerging field of 3D printed mechanical sensors. Techniques and processes were developed to enable the integration of highly conductive, and capacitive and piezoresistive sensing features embedded within 3D printed elastomeric materials. With these technologies we enabled the fabrication of fully 3D printed piezoresistive and capacitive sensors for normal force, shear forces and angular bending sensing.Integrating highly electrically conductive flexible silver films (

EPFL2022