Epidermal Photonics

September 19, 2014

Overview

(figure from Nature Communications 5, 4938 (2014).)

This project demonstrates, for the first time, a class of wearable medical devices with integrated thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC’s) with radio frequency (RF) antennas that, when coupled with pattern extraction algorithms, provide quantitative measurements of transient thermal characteristics of the skin. We use this platform to measure skin hydration and blood flow and discuss its utility in health diagnostics related to the skin and heart.

My responsibilities on this project were device fabrication, optimizing the process flow (making substrate transfer more reproducible), and device characterization/measurements (IR readings, mechanical characterization).