Imperceptible energy harvesting device and biomedical sensor based on ultraflexible ferroelectric transducers and organic diodes

Public Time: 2021-04-23 00:00:00
Journal: Nature Communications
doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22663-6
Author: Andreas Petritz;Esther Karner-Petritz;Takafumi Uemura;Philipp Schäffner;Teppei Araki;Barbara Stadlober;Tsuyoshi Sekitani
Summary: Energy autonomy and conformability are essential elements in the next generation of wearable and flexible electronics for healthcare, robotics and cyber-physical systems. This study presents ferroelectric polymer transducers and organic diodes for imperceptible sensing and energy harvesting systems, which are integrated on ultrathin (1-µm) substrates, thus imparting them with excellent flexibility. Simulations show that the sensitivity of ultraflexible ferroelectric polymer transducers is strongly enhanced by using an ultrathin substrate, which allows the mounting on 3D-shaped objects and the stacking in multiple layers. Indeed, ultraflexible ferroelectric polymer transducers have improved sensitivity to strain and pressure, fast response and excellent mechanical stability, thus forming imperceptible wireless e-health patches for precise pulse and blood pressure monitoring. For harvesting biomechanical energy, the transducers are combined with rectifiers based on ultraflexible organic diodes thus comprising an imperceptible, 2.5-µm thin, energy harvesting device with an excellent peak power density of 3 mW·cm−3.
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