Detecting Breast Cancer With Pressure-Sensitive Gloves

This pressure sensor can maintain accuracy even when bent over a radius of 80 micrometers—twice the width of a human hair.

AsianScientist (Feb. 4, 2016) – An innovation by Japanese researchers may one day allow healthcare practitioners to physically screen for breast cancer tumors using pressure-sensitive rubber gloves. Their work was published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Conventional pressure sensors are flexible enough to fit to soft surfaces such as human skin, but they cannot measure pressure changes accurately once they are twisted or wrinkled, making them unsuitable for use on complex and moving surfaces. Additionally, it is difficult to achieve a thickness of less than a 100 micrometers because of limitations in current production methods.

To address these issues, the research team from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering has developed a transparent, bendable, nanofiber-type pressure sensor that can measure pressure distribution of rounded surfaces such as an inflated balloon.

The sensor can maintain its sensing accuracy even when bent over a radius of 80 micrometers, equivalent to just twice the width of a human hair. It is roughly 8 micrometers thick and can measure the pressure in 144 locations at once.

The pressure sensors wrap around and conform to the shape of the fingers while still accurately measuring pressure distribution. Credit: Someya Laboratory
The pressure sensors wrap around and conform to the shape of the fingers while still accurately measuring pressure distribution. Credit: Someya Laboratory

The device consists of organic transistors, electronic switches made from carbon- and oxygen-based organic materials and a pressure sensitive nanofiber structure. Carbon nanotubes and graphene were added to an elastic polymer to create nanofibers with a diameter of 300 to 700 nanometers, which were then interwoven to form a transparent, thin and light porous structure.

“We’ve also tested the performance of our pressure sensor with an artificial blood vessel and found that it could detect small pressure changes and speed of pressure propagation,” said co-author and researcher, Dr. Lee Sungwon.

“Flexible electronics have great potential for implantable and wearable devices. I realized that many groups are developing flexible sensors that can measure pressure, but none of them are suitable for measuring real objects since they are sensitive to distortion. That was my main motivation and I think we have proposed an effective solution to this problem.”

The article can be found at: Li et al. (2016) A Transparent, Bending-Insensitive Pressure Sensor.

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Source: University of Tokyo; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.

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