Epidermal Electronic Systems for Measuring the Thermal Properties of Human Skin at Depths of up to Several Millimeters

Surabhi R. Madhvapathy, Yinji Ma, Manish Patel, Siddharth Krishnan, Chen Wei, Yajing Li, Shuai Xu, Xue Feng, Yonggang Huang*, John A. Rogers

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

Monitoring the composition, blood flow properties, and hydration status of human skin can be important in diagnosing disease and tracking overall health. Current methods are largely limited to clinical environments, and they primarily measure properties of superficial layers of the skin, such as the stratum corneum (10–40 µm). This work introduces soft, skin-like thermal depth sensors (e-TDS) in designs that seamlessly couple with human skin and measure its thermal properties with depth sensitivity that can extend up to 6 mm beneath the surface. Guidelines for tailoring devices to enable measurements through different effective depths follow from a systematic set of experiments, supported by theoretical modeling. On-body testing validates the physiological relevance of measurements using the e-TDS platform, with potential to aid the diagnosis of deep cutaneous and systemic diseases. Specific demonstrations include measurements that capture responses ranging from superficial changes in skin properties that result from application of a moisturizer, to changes in microvascular flow at intermediate depths induced by heating/cooling, to detection of inflammation in the deep dermis and subcutaneous fat in an incidence of a local bacterial infection, cellulitis.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number1802083
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume28
Issue number34
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 22 2018

Funding

S.R.M. and Y.M. contributed equally to this work. The authors would like to thank Prof. Kaitlyn Crawford for useful discussions. This work was supported by the Center for Bio-Integrated Electronics in the Simpson/ Querrey Institute at Northwestern University. Y.M. and X.F. acknowledge support from the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2015CB351900) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11402135 and 11320101001). Y.H. acknowledges support from NSF (Grant Nos. 1400169, 1534120, and 1635443). The studies utilized the Northwestern University Micro/Nano Fabrication Facility (NUFAB), which is partially supported by Soft and Hybrid Nanotechnology Experimental (SHyNE) Resource (NSF ECCS-1542205), the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (DMR-1720139), the State of Illinois, and Northwestern University.

Keywords

  • depth sensing
  • epidermal electronics
  • monitoring skin health
  • thermal conductivity
  • thermal sensors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • General Chemistry
  • Biomaterials
  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Electrochemistry

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