Wearable Functional Chest Patch for Detecting Critical Conditions from Coronavirus

Overview

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact everyone’s lives, the need for an accurate and continuous method to monitor patient’s symptoms has become increasing clear. The goal of this project is to develop sensors within a flexible circuit board to remotely monitor multiple common symptoms of COVID-19.

Objectives

The team’s first objective is to design and validate at least two sensors for common COVID-19 symptoms. Initially, the symptoms of interest include body temperature and respiration rate. Next, the team aims to develop a circuit board to collect and communicate the relevant data through a Bluetooth module. Finally, the team strives to create a smartphone app that receives and displays this data.

Approach

– To determine customer needs, the team communicated regularly with the sponsor.

– To fabricate the sensors, the team analyzed potential methods to quickly print inexpensive sensors before settling upon the Laser Induced Graphene (LIG) method.

– LIG uses a CO2 laser to transform a polyimide film into conductive graphene.

– Sensor were designed by analysing methods to vary wire resistance with strain or temperature.

– The strain sensor was tested by manually applying a mechanical strain.

– Using an oven, a calibration curve has been created for the temperature sensor.

– A paper battery, microcontroller, and Bluetooth module were added to a circuit with the sensors.

– Conductive epoxy was utilized to connect module pins to the graphene wires.

– Testing indicated the created circuit board does not properly transmit data.

– A smartphone app was developed and tested to collect and display the body temperature and respiration rate, warning the user if symptoms become severe.

Outcomes

– Prototyped with Laser Induced Graphene method to determine ideal laser parameters

– Designed and printed sensors for two key COVID-19 symptoms

– Tested the temperature and respiration sensor

– Developed a smartphone app for data analysis and visualization

– Printed initial prototype of flexible printed circuit board and attempted to fabricate complete circuit using a conductive epoxy

– Developed and communicated plan for improvements to current prototype to incoming students