04.16.19
Operating alongside partners on the BatterySense program, CPI is supporting work to reduce the size of existing wireless sensing form factors by exploiting additive manufacture. This allows for the intimate integration of batteries into the substrates of ultrathin label-like sensors fabricated by roll-to-roll processes.
Alongside its partners, the University of Kent – including the expertise of a group from Roma Tor Vergata around the embedding of skills transfer in skin-mounted biosensing technology – and the University of Manchester, CPI is providing the project with its manufacturing knowledge and expertise across the Internet of Things, R2R integration and battery formulation. In particular, CPI will be looking at bio-degradable material selection.
The project carries significant market importance, with the work raising the potential for use of biodegradable batteries within conformal sensors. The new re-engineered antennas and batteries aim to provide an alternative to existing ultra-high frequency radio frequency identification-based tags, which are limited in functionality and range. The battery-assisted labels will be printed using sustainable inks with reclaimable materials for the circular economy.
The project aims to allow communication at distances greater than passive alternatives and enable monitoring on objects or on skin, for example in atmospheric vapour sensing or medical testing. Integrated battery assistance will also make possible many potential applications, including bio-sensing, pharmaceutical patient compliance, and temperature and power monitoring. Successful outcomes will provide unprecedented data from attach-and-forget smart labels that are customised by overprinting with different sensing films. The team of leading wireless, battery formulation and digital manufacturing researchers will combine with CPI’s state-of-the-art printed electronics and formulation facilities to enable this novel technology.
“We relish the opportunity to play a part in this fast-growing industrial area, allowing the integration of batteries into the substrates of ultrathin label-like sensors," said Andrea Kelly, project manager at CPI.
“The BatterySense project has huge potential to transform multiple industries by allowing us to create skin-mounted wireless data transfers that are non-invasive and sustainable," added Prof. John Batchelor, from the University of Kent’s School of Engineering and Digital Arts.