The Kynix Blog

Instead of ordering batteries by the pack, we might get them by the ream in the future. Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have created a bacteria-powered battery on a single sheet of paper that can power disposable electronics. The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, and the design could revolutionize the use of bio-batteries as a power source in remote, dangerous and resource-limited areas."Papertronics have recently emerged as a simple and low-cost way to power disposable point-of-care diagnostic sensors," said Assistant Professor Seokheun "Sean" Choi, who is in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department within the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science. He is also the director of the Bioelectronics and Microsystems Lab at Binghamton."Stand-alone and self-sustained, paper-based, point-of-care devices are essential to providing effective and life-saving treatments in resource-limited settings," said Choi.On one half of a piece of chromatography paper, Choi and PhD candidate Yang Gao, who is a co-author of the paper, placed a ribbon of silver nitrate underneath a thin layer of wax to create a cathode. The pair then made a reservoir out of a conductive polymer on the other half of the paper, which acted as the anode. Once properly folded and a few drops of bacteria-filled liquid are added, the microbes' cellular respiration powers the battery. "The device requires layers to include components, such as the anode, cathode and PEM (proton exchange membrane)," said Choi. "[The final battery] demands manual assembly, and there are potential issues such as misalignment of paper layers and vertical discontinuity between layers, which ultimately decrease power generation."Different folding and stacking methods can significantly improve power and current outputs. Scientists were able to generate 31.51 microwatts at 125.53 microamps with six batteries in three parallel series and 44.85 microwatts at 105.89 microamps in a 6x6 configuration.It would take millions of paper batteries to power a common 40-watt light bulb, but on the battlefield or in a disaster situation, usability and portability is paramount. Plus, there is enough power to run biosensors that monitor glucose levels in diabetes patients, detect pathogens in a body or perform other life-saving functions. "Among many flexible and integrative paper-based batteries with a large upside, paper-based microbial fuel cell technology is arguably the most underdeveloped," said Choi. "We are excited about this because microorganisms can harvest electrical power from any type of biodegradable source, like wastewater, that is readily available. I believe this type of paper biobattery can be a future power source for papertronics."The innovation is the latest step in paper battery development by Choi. His team developed its first paper prototype in 2015, which was a foldable battery that looked much like a matchbook. Earlier this year they unveiled a design that was inspired by a ninja throwing star.Reference:AFPG804TL-5276/WAFPX-BATT 

While investigating mass transit accidents, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials often rely on digital clues left behind in flash memories of any and all electronic devices—both personal and professional—at a crash site. With the physical forces and high-temperature fires associated with many crashes, memory units are often damaged and sometimes unreadable.Researchers at Binghamton University, State University of New York have figured out how much damage memory units can sustain before becoming unreadable and new repair techniques to retrieve clues off of damaged units, which might help prevent future tragedies."The biggest surprise was how much punishment these devices can take before ceasing to function," said Steve Cain, who is the project manager and a senior research support specialist in the Integrated Electronics Engineering Center (IEEC) at Binghamton University. "As part of their post-crash investigations, the NTSB collects anything and everything at the scene, including personal electronic devices. If the device was active during or just before the crash, it is possible that the data stored in the memory can provide clues as to the cause of the crash. Most of the time the device is ruined, but sometimes it is intact."The interdisciplinary Binghamton group of Cain, Preeth Sivakumar, Jack Lombardi, and Mark Poliks along with James Cash, Joseph Gregor, and Michael Budinski from the NTSB, presented "Fire Damage and Repair Techniques for Flash Memory Modules: Implication for Post-Crash Investigations" at the Fall 2016 International Symposium of Microelectronics.Scientists found plastic coverings started to break down after three hours of exposure to temperatures of 300 degrees Celsius, or about 572 degrees Fahrenheit or more, but memory chips were still readable.Researchers pointed out that even with the pressures and forces in play during past crashes, temperatures typically only reach those levels for short periods of time."Data integrity was maintained even in a plasma discharge," Cain said. "Basically, if the device doesn't burn up, there is a reasonable chance of the data being retained in the chip. The only problem is that the connections to the memory chips may be broken, so that the data cannot be read."For the second part of the study, researchers addressed the readability issue. The team purposely damaged memory units and then extracted memory chips using acid, lasers, plasma, or mechanical polishing.Lasers were the most effective extraction method and mechanical extractions was the simplest, but each method still damaged the wire bonds within memory chips and made many unreadable. A specialized metallic ink from a precision printer was used to restore functionality."These results expand the investigative scope for aviation accidents, where the data rather than the device is of paramount importance," the team concluded. "It is possible to repair the interconnections of flash memory modules, provided the chip is intact." Reference:MT16JTF51264AZ-1G6M1SDUS5EB-001GMD2202-D192 

Clinical breast examinations can save women's lives, but, as doctors-in-training, new residents sometimes aren't thorough or experienced enough to detect potentially cancerous abnormalities.Now, future physicians could learn to give high-quality breast exams with help from high-tech sensors developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers."This whole project is about facilitating the training of residents," says Hongrui Jiang, Lynn H. Matthias Professor in Engineering and Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in electrical and computer engineering.The project is working toward creating small fingertip sensors that can measure the pressure and hand motions used by physicians when probing for lumps. New residents will be able to compare their own exams against standards established from experienced doctors, and obtain feedback on whether or not they are being sufficiently thorough.Experienced clinicians long have been looking for an effective tool to establish standards for high-quality breast exams. Dr. Carla Pugh, the Susan Behrens, MD Professor of Surgical Education and a professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison, has attempted for years to create such a device, but the available sensing technology simply couldn't capture all of the subtle motions necessary for performing a comprehensive breast examination."They were using commercial products—but the sensors were not very good," says Jiang. "Commercial sensors have serious limitations."While some of the existing devices could quantify direct pressure reasonably well, nothing existed that could also measure the side-to-side and circular motion that real-world clinical procedures entail. So Pugh approached Jiang for help."It was very hard; we couldn't figure out a nice way to handle the problem until a year ago, when we had an 'aha' moment," says Jiang.Jiang and his student, Jayer Fernandez, realized that one traditional capacitive sensor alone couldn't possibly measure all of the necessary parameters. Instead, they fashioned a device that integrates information from four overlapping components to quantify pressure and shear from all three dimensions.That novel approach earned Fernandez top honors at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' prestigious Sensors Conference in fall 2016. Fernandez gave a brief, informal presentation to a panel of experts, who were impressed by the capabilities of the device."I've never done an elevator pitch before, but it went well. People asked me a lot of interesting questions. I described why our sensor is more sensitive to the force range that we're looking at and gives us a nice way to do the readout in different directions," says Fernandez.Currently the researchers are working to further miniaturize the sensor, and to combine data from multiple devices at once. They will continue to collaborate with Pugh and other clinicians to develop the most useful device for working doctors."There's a real need to improve physician training," says Jiang. "We didn't realize there was such a clinical need. It's a very challenging problem, but very interesting and very significant." Reference:OVM7695-RAEAOV09726-A40A-1DOV05633 

Microfluidic platforms have revolutionized medical diagnostics in recent years. Instead of sending blood or urine samples off to a laboratory for analysis, doctors can test a single drop of a patient's blood or urine for various diseases at point-of-care without the need for expensive instruments. Before the sample can be tested however, doctors need to insert specific disease-detecting biomolecules into the microfluidic platform. While doing so, it has to be ensured that these biomolecules are well-bound to the inside of the device to protect them from being flushed out by the incoming sample. As this preparatory step can be time-consuming, it would be advantageous if microfluidic platforms could come pre-prepared with specific biomolecules sealed inside. However, this sealing process requires exposure of the device components to high energy or 'ionized' gas and whether biomolecules can survive this harsh process is unknown.To answer this question, researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) have created a novel sensor that detects biomolecules more accurately than ever before. This sensor was used to demonstrate that biomolecules can be successfully sealed within microfluidic devices. The results have profound implications for healthcare diagnostics and open up opportunities for producing pre-packaged microfluidic platform blood or urine testing devices.Traditionally, metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) sensors are used to detect the binding of biomolecules to a surface by measuring changes in charge. Comprised of a silicon semiconductor layer, a glass insulator layer and a gold metal layer, these sensors are incorporated in an electric circuit with the biomolecule sitting in an electrolyte-filled plastic well on top of the sensor. If you then apply a voltage and measure current, you can work out the charge from the capacitance reading given off. Biomolecules with different charges will give you different capacitance readings, enabling you to quantify the presence of biomolecules.The novel sensor created by researchers in OIST's Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit, measures charge using the same technique as conventional sensors but has the additional function of measuring mass. Instead of having a solid gold metal layer, the so-called nano-metal-insulator semiconductor (nMIS) sensor has a layer of tiny gold metal islands. If you shine light on these nanostructures, the surface electrons start oscillating at a specific frequency. When biomolecules are added to these nanoislands, the frequency of these oscillations change proportional to the mass of the biomolecule. Based on this change, you can use this technique to measure the mass of the biomolecule, and confirm whether it survives exposure to ionized gas during encapsulation within the microfluidic platform."We made a simple sensor that can answer very complex surface chemistry questions," says Dr. Nikhil Bhalla who worked on the creation of the nMIS sensor.Measuring two fundamental properties of surface chemical reactions on the same device means that researchers can be far more confident that biomolecules have been successfully encapsulated within the microfluidic platform. A measurement of charge or mass alone could be misleading, making it look like biomolecules have bound to a surface when in fact they have not. Having more than one technique in the same device means that you can switch from one mode to the other to see if you have the same result."Scientists have to validate one reaction with multiple techniques to confirm that an observation is authentic. If you've got a sensor that enables the detection of two parameters on a single platform, then it is really beneficial for the sensing community," says Dr. Bhalla."By combining these two simple measurement techniques into one compact platform, it opens doors to create portable and reliable sensing technologies in the future", adds PhD student Shivani Sathish.In a proof-of-concept experiment, by combining information about both the mass and charge of the biomolecule, the scientists were able to show that a common biomolecule survives exposure to ionized gas at a specific energy level. A single reading of charge alone gives a misleading result, but looking at the complementary parameters together allows for more accurate biomolecule detection.This novel nMIS sensor could be used to create microfluidic platforms that test for various diseases. By measuring charge and mass using the nMIS sensor, researchers can ensure that disease-detecting biomolecules are successfully sealed and functional inside the testing device."It would be like a pre-packaged pregnancy test," says Professor Amy Shen, head of OIST's Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit. "If there is already something adsorbed then all you have to do is introduce whatever sample you are using, such as urine or blood." Reference:ADXRS620BBGZLPY410ALTRADXRS649BBGZ

Companies have developed the industry’s first intelligent always-on visual sensor specifically designed to overcome the power and cost constraints of vision processing for IoT applications. The companies will showcase the WiseEye IoT sensor at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017, January 5-8, 2017 in Las Vegas.The WiseEye IoT sensor solution is purpose-built from the ground up with always-on, low power visual sensing in mind. By integrating Himax’ unique low power CMOS Imager Sensor, CEVA’s low power vision DSP technology and emza’s unique machine vision algorithms, the result is a powerful solution capable of detecting, tracking and recognising its environment in an extremely efficient manner using a few milliwatts of power.This disruptive sensor allows low-cost IoT systems to employ advanced always-on intelligence which can, among other things, detect, track and identify objects, people and animals. This intelligence is applied locally on the device, passing only relevant information up to the network.This is fundamental to reducing the bandwidth and cost of deploying visual sensing networks. Target applications include virtual assistants, wearable devices, connected home sensors, residential security, protection of elderly, automotive, smart buildings systems and smart city infrastructure.“Our image sensors have long been among the leanest in the industry in terms of power consumption. We have leveraged our vast expertise to develop an ultra-low power sensor specifically for IoT,” said Amit Mittra, CTO of Himax Imaging.“Our collaboration with CEVA and emza tightly integrates our sensor with the best-in-class processor and machine vision that allows us deliver a truly unique always-on, contextually aware sensor solution that is affordable for almost every application.”“Machine vision based sensors enhance the intelligence and functionality of any device, and our WiseEye IoT solution aims at bringing these capabilities to the vast and largely untapped IoT space,” said Yoram Zylberberg, CEO of emza Visual Sense. “In Himax and CEVA we have two of the leading experts in sensors and vision processing, and the ideal partners to realise the industry’s first always-on intelligent visual sensor.”“Low power intelligent vision processing is a key component of our strategy to enable a smarter, connected world, and we’re excited to work with emza and Himax to introduce a unique and revolutionary solution for always-on intelligent visual sensing,” said Ilan Yona, vice president and general manager of the Vision Business Unit at CEVA.“A purpose-built solution such as the WiseEye IoT will help to truly realise the potential of machine vision in IoT by delivering the performance and battery life at a price point that supports mass deployment.”Reference:OVM7695-RAEAOV09726-A40A-1DMT9V011P11STC:B  

The sensor offers a five-fold increase in proximity detection over previous-generation devices. The sensor’s integrated long-distance proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and 940nm infrared-emitting diode (IRED) eliminate the need for additional light barriers and optical alignment of the IR emitter and photo diode.The device’s small outline saves space and gives design engineers greater flexibility in where and how they locate the sensor.A 16-bit, high-resolution ambient light sensor offers excellent sensing capabilities with sufficient selections to fulfill most applications whether a dark or high-transparency lens design.The devices offer individual programmable high- and low-threshold interrupt features to allow designers to best utilise resources and power on the microcontroller.For the 8-bit proximity-sensing function, VCNL4100 has a built-in intelligent cancelation scheme that eliminates background light issues. The device’s smart persistence scheme prevents false judgment of proximity sensing due to ambient light noise.It provides temperature compensation of -40 to +85 degrees Celsius to keep the output stable under changing temperature.Designers can easily operate proximity and ambient light sensor functions via the device’s I2C (SMBus-compatible) interface protocol.The device operates on a supply voltage range of 2.5V to 3.6V in a lead-free, RoHS-compliant 8.0 × 3.0 × 1.8mm package.Reference:T141AM61STMPE1208SQTRQT1101-ISG