| RESEARCH |
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Kickoff : July 2018 End date: August 2020 2019.04.1
2018.12.14
Premiazione in Regione Lazio 2018.12.1 Dr. Francesco AMATO joins SECOND SKIN team ACHIEVEMENTS DISSEMINATION PUBLICATIONS AWARDS PRESS RELEASE |
BioIntegrated Wireless Sensors for the Epidermal Monitoring and Reactivation of Sensorial Injuries Sistemi wireless bio-integrati per il monitoraggio dell’epidermide e il ripristino di funzionalità tattili
Background The proposal is inspired by the pioneering
basic research that already involves the proponents
about the study of wireless devices suitable to be
placed in direct contact with human skin having the
fundamental characteristic of being able to run without
battery and to be able to be concentrated in the
encumbrance of a plaster or even a tattoo. Previous
research, which has already had the opportunity to
cement the various complementarities of the proponent
research group, have shown that it is possible to use a
widespread wireless technology in the logistics of
goods, such as Radiofrequency Identification (RFID), to
power radio devices. -electronic devices applied to the
skin and read the information they acquire up to a
distance of about one meter.
Development of epidermal technologies for
the realization of bio-integrated radio interrogation
membranes that can act as SECOND SKIN (with data
acquisition capabilities) equipped with wireless
sensors without batteries and remotely interrogated by
fixed and wearable systems with local processing
capacity (smartwatch smartphones).
End-Project Overview End-project dissemination
presented at IEEE RFID-TA 2021 |
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The RFID measurement Station Voyantic Tagformance |
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 Workshop: Bio-Integrated Flexible and Stretchable Electronics for Skin Sensor Networks Chicago (US) - May 2019 |
 Abstract BSN Conference 2019 |
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V. Mazzaracchio, L. Fiore, S. Nappi, G.
Marrocco and F. Arduini, "Medium-distance
affordable, flexible and wireless epidermal sensor
for pH monitoring in sweat", Talanta,
vol. 222, January 2021 In the last decade, wearable sensors have gained a key role on biomedical research field for reliable health state monitoring. A wide plethora of physics marker sensors is already commercially available, including activity tracker, heart rate devices, and fitness smartwatch. On the contrary, wearable and epidermal sensors for chemical biomarker monitoring in several biofluids are not ready yet. Herein, we report a wireless and flexible epidermal device for pH monitoring in sweat, fabricated by encompassing a screen-printed potentiometric sensor, an integrated circuit, and antenna embedded onto the same Kapton substrate. An iridium oxide film was electrodeposited onto the graphite working electrode providing the pH sensitive layer, while the integrated circuit board allows for data acquisition and storing. Furthermore, a radio frequency identification antenna surrounding the entire system enables data transmission to an external reader up to nearly 2 m in the most favourable case. The potentiometric sensor was firstly characterised by cyclic voltammetry experiments, then the iridium oxide electrodeposition procedure was optimised. Next, the sensor was tested toward pH detection in buffer solutions with a near-Nernstian response equal to −0.079 ± 0.002 V for unit of pH. Interference studies of common sweat ions, including Na+, K+ and Cl−, showed any influence on the pH sensor response. Finally, the integrated epidermal device was tested for real-time on-body pH sweat monitoring during a running activity. Data recorded for a running subject were wireless transmitted to an external receiver, showing a pH value close to 5.5, in agreement with value obtained by pH-meter reference measurement. |
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F. Camera, C. Miozzi, F. Amato, C. Occhiuzzi
and G. Marrocco, "Experimental
Assessment of Wireless Monitoring of Axilla
Temperature by Means of Epidermal Battery-Less RFID
Sensors", IEEE Sensors Letters
Vol.4, November 2020 Wireless epidermal devices (WEDs), based on UHF radio frequency identification (RFID), enable a contactless and noninvasive human body monitoring through sampling of health parameters directly on the skin. With reference to body temperature, this letter reports an experimental campaign aimed at assessing the degree of agreement of a batteryless plaster-like WED, placed in the armpit region, with a standard axilla thermocouple thermometer. A measurement campaign over 10 volunteers, for overall 120 temperature outcomes, revealed a good correlation among the instruments (Person’s coefficient p = 0.78) and a difference of less than 0.6 °C in the 95% of the measured cases, provided that a user-calibration is applied. RFID-WED enables a noncontacting reading up to 20 cm and direct connectivity with a cloud architecture. Envisaged applications are the periodic monitoring in clinical and domestic scenarios, as well as the screening of restricted communities related to COVID-19 control and recovery. |
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C. Occhiuzzi, S. Parrella, F. Camera, S.
Nappi and G. Marrocco, "RFID-based
Dual-Chip Epidermal Sensing Platform for Human
Skin Monitoring", IEEE Sensors Journal,
October 2020 Wireless epidermal devices based on Radio frequency Identification (RFID) enable a contactless and noninvasive monitoring of the human body by sampling health parameters directly on the skin. To achieve multi-parametric sensing, while preserving the intrinsic simplicity and the low cost of RFID tags, a dual-chip epidermal device is here proposed. At this purpose a polarization-diversity loop antenna is exploited so that two almost independent current modes are excited. The resulting radiation patterns are both broadside, thus enabling the simultaneous gathering of two independent dataset from the same maximum distance. A 3.5 by 3.5 cm battery-less, flexible and soft prototype provides -13 dBi embedded realized gain with read distances ranging from 0.6m to 1.5m depending on the microchip sensitivity. The electromagnetic performance of the two ports remain similar even when the tag is applied onto rather in-homogeneous body regions. With reference to body temperature monitoring, the device has been experimented in both controlled and real-life environments, demonstrating the possibility of doubling the sensing capabilities of RFID epidermal devices without affecting their size and radiation performances. |
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F.
Camera and
G. Marrocco, "Electromagnetic-based
Correction of Bio-Integrated RFID Sensors
for Reliable Skin Temperature Monitoring",
IEEE Sensors Journal,
August 2020
Bio-integrated
wireless sensors in the form of conformable plaster,
based on the Radiofrequency Identification
(RFID) communication, have
been recently proposed for the battery-less measurement
of the human skin temperature. However, the
response of the Integrated
Circuit (IC) transponder is sensitive to the
strength of the interrogating power. Indeed,
high power produces artifacts on the
sampled temperature up to 2 °C when the mutual position
between reader and sensors, as well as the
emitted power, can not be
carefully controlled. Hence, a reliable
adoption of this technology in real
cases is challenging and still in question. A
combined macro-scale electromagnetic-thermal
model is here introduced to predict
and correct the above artifact so that
the
temperature measurement becomes
insensitive to the RF power collected by the
IC. The method is based on the new generation
RFID ICs with on-chip temperature sensor that
are also capable to give back the strength of
the collected RF power. The model is
validated in controlled
conditions and then applied for different skin
temperature measurements on human
body. An average accuracy of 0.25 °C,
compared with a reference calibrated
thermocouple, was demonstrated in the
considered tests.
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C.
Miozzi, F. Amato and G. Marrocco, "Performance
and Durability of Thread Antennas as Stretchable
Epidermal UHF RFID Tags",
IEEE RFID Journal,
June 2020
Epidermal
sensors based on battery-less Radiofrequency Identification
(RFID) aim at collecting biophysical parameters with
a high level of comfort for the user. This paper investigates
the performance and durability of epidermal RFID tags,
equipped with a self-tuning RFID IC, that are
based either on copper wires or
conductive yarn. The tags are deployed onto an
ultra-thin stretchable and transparent substrate
to achieve comformability to body discontinuities.
A statistical analysis on volunteers showed
that, in the whole UHF band (860-960 MHz), reliable
read ranges of 1 m are easily achieved while up
to 2
m can be reached in some favorable
configurations. Both tags withstand
wear, mechanical stress due to the movements of
the body,
sweating, and water. In particular, the tag made
of conductive
yarn lasts for more than 20 days. This new
family of epidermal tags are
moreover suitable to low-cost and
large-scale manufacturing through the
widely available machines used for wire-laying,
bending, and shaping.
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G. Bianco, S. Amendola and G.
Marrocco, "Near-field
Constrained Design for Self-tuning UHF-RFID
Antennas", IEEE Transactions on
Antennas and Propagation, May 2020
Recently
introduced self-tuning RFID tags are capable to
dynamically modify the input impedance of the
embedded
microchip transponder in order to
compensate possible impedance mismatch with the
antenna, thus making the communication
performance rather insensitive to the nearby environment.
A general method for the design of this new class of
tags is presented with the purpose to master the
complex
configuration, where the tag is placed at a
close distance from the interrogating antenna
and the free-space assumption is not
valid. A two-port system is introduced and the
networkoriented reformulation of
self-tuning action permits to derive an optimization
problem for the minimization of the interrogation power
for a wide range of boundary conditions. The
method is
demonstrated, both numerically and
experimentally, through the application of a
Finger Augmentation Device aimed to achieve a smart
interaction with touched objects.
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F. Amato, C. Occhiuzzi and G.
Marrocco, "Epidermal
Backscattering Antennas in the 5G Framework:
Performance and Perspectives", IEEE
Journal of RFID, May 2020
Epidermal RFIDs,
if integrated within the nextgeneration (5G)
wireless architecture, would enable low-cost healthcare
applications for remote monitoring of patients,
realtime telesurgery,
and augmented sensing abilities. This paper explores,
through simulations and preliminary experiments,
epidermal
5G-RFIDs operating both at microwave and
mmWave frequencies.
In particular, it identifies the maximum gains of epidermal
antennas at their optimal sizes, the achievable read ranges
of passive 5G-RFID links, and their possible
data-rates.
Moreover, it demonstrates the compliance with
electromagnetic exposure regulations and
explores the benefits of epidermal arrays.
Loop transponders at microwave frequencies (3.6 GHz) could
provide the same read distance (one meter) of their
UHF counterparts
while having a smaller footprint (17 x 17 mm2) and
reaching a theoretical data-rate as high as 0.5
Gbps. At 28
GHz and 60 GHz, instead, arrays could be used
to both achieve comparable performances and
enable beamsteering.
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C.
Miozzi, G.
Diotallevi, M. Cirelli, P. P. Valentini and
G. Marrocco, "Radio-mechanical
Characterization of Epidermal Antennas during Human
Gestures", IEEE Sensors, January 2020 Recent
developments in Materials and Radiofrequency
Identification (RFID) technologies are currently
boosting the development of new class of flexible and
elastic epidermal devices for the wireless remote
monitoring of biophysical parameters. As tightly
bio-integrated with the skin, epidermal antennas are
subjected to mechanical deformation during the natural
movements and gestures of the human body. The
experienced effect is a degradation of the
communication performance of the RFID link. In this
contribution, we evaluate the stiffness and the change
of the radiation gain of on-skin UHF antennas in
common gestures by a combined
mechanical-electromagnetic model to provide a database
and a modelling methodology to improve the design of
deformation-tolerant skin antennas. The deformation of
the skin is firstly quantified by using a contactless
3D scanner and then the communication impact is
predicted by means of an electromagnetic analysis of
stretched antennas for some relevant cases of
thin-wire layouts. Preliminary numerical simulations
and experimentations demonstrated that constraints
over low stiffness and insensitivity of radiation gain
could be not always compatible. An epidermal antenna
may undergo up to 3-4 dB of gain degradation that
converts to 30% reduction of the read distance for the
strain orientation producing the minimum mechanical
stiffness. The derived deformation database could be
useful to improve the design of more robust epidermal
antennas.
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S. Nappi and G. Marrocco, "Space-Filling
Electromagnetic Skins for the Wireless Monitoring of
Surface Defects", IEEE Sensors, August 2019
Polymer-based objects (cable harness,
gaskets, tires) are exposed, during their lifetime, to
mechanical and chemical stress that often generates
surface defects like crack and scratches. Early
detection of signs of aging may enable a Predictive
Maintenance to extend the life of the object and avoid
severe failures. For this purpose, Space Filling Curves
(SFC) are here proposed as an artificial electric skin,
suitable to envelope a surface to wireless detect the
presence of small aging signs by resorting to an
electromagnetic backscattering platform. Size and
resolution of the skin can be controlled by just two
parameters and multiple skin cells can be arranged
together to tessellate a large surface in order to even
identify the position of the defect. By following a
theoretical analysis of the sensor-oriented properties
of SFCs, and in particular of the Gosper-Fukuda family,
the feasibility of the idea is demonstrated by the way
of preliminary experiments with a Radio Frequency
Identification (RFID) IC, providing a 1-bit anti-tamper
port.
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C. Miozzi, S. Nappi, S. Amendola, C.
Occhiuzzi and G. Marrocco, "A
General-purpose Configurable RFID Epidermal Board
with a Two-way Discrete Impedance Tuning",
IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, February
2019
Current advances of the
Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) technology can
boost the emerging class of biointegrated skin devices
exploiting low-power (even passive) wireless
communication and sensing interfaces. This work
describes a small-size (3cmx3cm) flexible UHF RFID
board conceived for the rapid laboratory
experimentation and suitable to multi-purpose
monitoring of physical parameters (e.g. temperature
and sweat) over the skin and/or over clothing layers
and medical plasters. An engineered open-loop antenna
is coupled with a two-way discrete (four states)
tuning circuit to compensate the frequency shifts that
occur in real applications due to the intrinsic
variability of the human body. The capability of the
tuning mechanism to down/up-shift the operating
frequency and to restore the default state is
validated by means of both numerical simulation and
measurements over some volunteers in realistic
conditions.
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| Conferences |
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S. Nappi and G. Marrocco, “RFID-Based
Stress Predictive Engineering”, 23th
Riunione Nazionale di Elettromagnetismo (RiNEm 2020),
Roma (IT), November 2020 Tactile Internet (TI) is the new frontier of the Internet of Things that is based on free-hand gestures as a human/computer interface. A promising enabler for TI is the recently introduced Radiofrequency Finger Augmentation Device (R-FAD) family, assistive technology for the recovery of lost or damaged senses. The R-FAD core comprises a wrist reader coupled in near-field with a fingertip sensor tag. To prevent the interruption of the wrist-finger link during the touch of objects, self-tuning microchips must be used since they are capable to adapt their internal impedance and preserve the communication. A unitary electromagnetic/electric model is here proposed to address the double specificity of R-FAD devices for TI, namely the Near-Field interaction among the antennas, and the dynamic behavior of the IC. The model is based on a two-port network and is suitable for the application to the constrained design of robust communication links. |
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G. M. Bianco, S.
Amendola and G. Marrocco, "Near-field
modeling of Self-tuning Antennas for the Tactile
Internet", 2020 XXXIIIrd General
Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS) of the
International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Rome (Italy),
September 2020 Tactile Internet (TI) is the new frontier of the Internet of Things that is based on free-hand gestures as a human/computer interface. A promising enabler for TI is the recently introduced Radiofrequency Finger Augmentation Device (R-FAD) family, assistive technology for the recovery of lost or damaged senses. The R-FAD core comprises a wrist reader coupled in near-field with a fingertip sensor tag. To prevent the interruption of the wrist-finger link during the touch of objects, self-tuning microchips must be used since they are capable to adapt their internal impedance and preserve the communication. A unitary electromagnetic/electric model is here proposed to address the double specificity of R-FAD devices for TI, namely the Near-Field interaction among the antennas, and the dynamic behavior of the IC. The model is based on a two-port network and is suitable for the application to the constrained design of robust communication links. |
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F. Amato, A. D.
Carlofelice, C. Occhiuzzi, P. Tognolatti and G. Marrocco,
"S-band
Testbed for 5G Epidermal RFIDs", 2020
XXXIIIrd General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS)
of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), Rome
(Italy), September 2020 RFID-based epidermal electronics for healthcare applications, if integrated within the next-generation (5G) wireless network, could enable new sensing abilities characterized by high-speed transfer of data, small sizes, and reduced complexity. Within the 5G spectrum, the S-band allows to design antennas with small footprint and higher gains than UHF-RFIDs. This paper introduces, therefore, a 5G-RFID experimental setup to investigate the performance of epidermal RFID tags operating at S-band. |
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G. M. Bianco, C.
Vivarelli, S. Amendola and G. Marrocco, "Experimentation
and calibration of Near-Field UHF Epidermal
communication for emerging Tactile Internet", 2020 5th
International Conference on Smart and Sustainable
Technologies (SpliTech), Split (Croatia), September 2020 Tactile Internet (TI) is an emerging paradigm of the Internet of Things that exploits the Wireless Body Area Network wherein free-hand gestures are used as human/computer interface. The recently introduced Radiofrequency Augmentation Devices (R-FADs), which are assistive tools for sensory impaired people, can be considered also a promising enabler for TI. The core of R-FAD systems is a wrist reader and a fingertip sensor tag. An R-FAD for ’sensing’ of dielectric objects can provide the users with feedback about the touched material. In this paper, we evaluate the variability of an R-FAD response on a personal basis. Results revealed that the user-specific variability can be mitigated by performing a calibration with respect to a highpermittivity material. |
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S. Nappi, C. J. Su, H.
Luan, J. A. Rogers and G. Marrocco, "Stretchable
Wireless Sensor Skin for the Surface Monitoring of
Soft Objects", 2020 IEEE
International Conference on Flexible and Printable Sensors
and Systems (FLEPS), Manchester (United Kingdom), August
2020 Like rigid objects, also soft and elastic manufactured materials for industrial and biomedical applications are subjected to fatigue stress that might speed up the aging process and even cause premature failures. The occurrence of early signs of damaging, like the arising of surface cracks, could avoid more severe critical events, especially when biomedical soft prosthesis are involved (such as artificial breast, stomach, bladder). A thin-film stretchable wireless sensor for surface monitoring is here proposed. The device is based on a densely distributed electrode exploiting, at the macro-scale, a Space-Filling Curve pattern, and a meandered profile in the micro-scale. Interconnection with a wrapped Radiofrequency Identification antenna permits to transmit the status of the electrode to remote, with no battery onboard. The device was manufactured by means of electron beam deposition over a thin elastomer. Surface defects of size larger than 0.9mm to 9mm can be detected with probability of 60% to 90%, respectively. Thanks to its doublescale meanderings, the sensor is highly tolerant to stretch keeping its shape nearly unchanged up to a 35% strain. |
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F. Amato, C. Occhiuzzi and G. Marrocco, "Performances of
a 3.6 GHz Epidermal Loop for Future 5G-RFID
Communications", 2020 14th European
Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP),
Copenhagen (Denmark), March 2020
This paper explores, through simulations
and preliminary experiments, the feasibility of a
5G-RFID link for a backscattering epidermal sensing
architecture integrated within the 5G network. It
demonstrates how a 3.6 GHz loop tag could provide the
same read distance (one meter) of three-times larger
UHF counterparts. The proposed loop is compliant with
regulations on electromagnetic exposure and can
theoretically achieve data rates up to 0.52 Gbps.
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S. Amendola, V. Greco, G. M. Bianco and G.
Marrocco, "Application
of Radio-Finger Augmented Devices to Cognitive
Neural remapping", RFID-TA 2019, Pisa
(IT), September 25-27, 2019
Finger-Augmented Devices having wireless
connectivity based on battery-less backscattering
(RFID-FAD) are useful assistive tools for subjects
suffering from Hypoesthesia. This work presents an
optimized R-FAD system consisting of a conformal
sensor-tag sized for the fingertip and a wristmounted
module (antenna+reader) that powers the on-chip finger
sensor, collect the data transmitted back and convert
them into acoustic feedback. Beyond the use as a
disability aid, the R-FAD system is here applied, for
the first time, in the context of cognitive
neuroscience, to investigate if the loss of physical
perception of the warmth could affect also the
abstract/mental representation of the temperature, as
claimed by the grounded theories. Preliminary tests,
involving both control healthy subjects and a
deafferented patient, corroborate this theory and, above
all, suggest that the training with the R-FAD system,
providing a ’transduced’ thermal sensitivity, may play a
role in the cognitive re-mapping of the thermal
perception.
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S. Nappi, L. Gargale, P. P. Valentini and G.
Marrocco, "RF
Detection of Micro-cracks in Orthopedic Implants by
Conformal Space Filling Curves",RFID-TA
2019, Pisa (IT), September 25-27, 2019
Implanted prosthesis could be subjected to
fractures due to defects and to aging. Conventional
diagnostic tools involves X-Rays or, more commonly, the
onset of the patient’s pain due to an irreversible
failure. A non-invasive wireless monitoring system is
here presented for the early detection of micro-cracks
over metallic orthopedic implants. The proposed
architecture involves a distributed electrode made of
Space Filling Curves connected to the anti-tamper port
of a UHF RFID transponder. The occurrence of an even
small surface crack is detected in a binary form and
transmitted remotely, outside the body following a
standard RFID interrogation. The feasibility of the idea
is supported by numerical analysis and
experimentaloutcomes with a 3D printed and metallized
hip prosthesis mock-up. Preliminary results demonstrate
a detection distance up to 0.7m, fully compliant with
fast and non-collaborative diagnosis in the emerging
Personalized Healthcare.
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F. Camera, C. Occhiuzzi, C. Miozzi, S.
Nappi, A. Bozzo, P. Tomola, A. Bin and G. Marrocco, "Monitoring
of temperature stress during firefighters training
by means of RFID epidermal sensors", RFID-TA
2019, Pisa (IT), September 25-27, 2019
Monitoring body temperature is a fundamental
health issue for workers that, like firefighters, are
sometimes exposed to high thermal stress. Wireless
epidermal sensors are a non-invasive tool to collect
temperature data in a very efficient way. This paper
describes an experimental study carried out during a
Compartment Fire Behavior Training. We used wireless
thermometers based on Radiofrequency Identification
(RFID) technology to measure firefighters clothing
layers temperatures. Such devices can be placed directly
on the skin like a plaster and are compatible with the
UHF RFID standard. Thanks to the simplicity of sensor
activation and data download, we managed to obtain
multiple data from 10 firefighters during their
training. These collected data give an idea of the
thermal load that the firefighters experience while
performing their duties.
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F. Amato, C. Miozzi, S. Nappi and G.
Marrocco, "Self-Tuning
UHF Epidermal Antennas", RFID-TA
2019, Pisa (IT), September 25-27, 2019
Epidermal sensors based on Radiofrequency
Identification are suitable to be attached onto the skin
like a thin and flexible plaster and allow collecting
biophysical parameters with a high level of comfort for
the user. When working in the UHF band (860-960 MHz),
the on-skin antenna performance (impedance matching and
the corresponding read distance) is strongly dependent
on the region of the human body where it is attached and
by the body mass of the user. The self-tuning UHF
epidermal RFID tag, based on a multi-state RFID IC, is a
placement-robust RFID skin device that can automatically
and dynamically modify its internal impedance depending
of the boundary condition seen by the antenna. The
epidermal sensor, also capable to measure skin
temperature, preserves a realized gain variation of 2:5
dB for applications in the same part of the body of some
volunteers. It provides a read distance of more than 1 m
in the whole worldwide RFID band (860 - 960 MHz), with
60% of probability, for any considered positions and
users and up to 90% of probability in case of
application on abdomen or arms.
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G. Diotallevi, C. Miozzi, M. Cirelli, P. P.
Valentini and G. Marrocco, "Radio-Mechanical
Model of Epidermal Antenna Stretching during Human
Gestures", FLEPS 2019,
Glasgow, Scotland (UK), July 7-10, 2019
Recent developments in Materials and
Radiofrequency Identification (RFID) technologies are
currently stimulating the development of new class of
flexible epidermal devices for the wireless remote
monitoring of biophysical parameters. The natural
movements and gestures of the human body will not only
produce mechanical stretching of skin antennas but they
could also affect their communication performance. In
this contribution we evaluate the degradation of the
radiation gain of on-skin UHF antennas in common
gestures by a combined mechanicalelectromagnetic model.
The deformation of the skin is firstly quantified by
using a 3D scanner and hence the communication impact is
evaluated with reference to a typical 867 MHz thin wire
split-ring epidermal antenna. Preliminary numerical
simulations and experimentations demonstrated that the
behavior of the antenna is modified with a maximum 30%
degradation of the read distance for the strain
orientation producing the minimum mechanical stiffness.
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S. Nappi, V. Mazzaracchio, L. Fiore, F.
Arduini and G. Marrocco, "Flexible
pH Sensor for Wireless Monitoring of the Human Skin
from the Medimun Distances", FLEPS
2019, Glasgow, Scotland (UK), July 7-10, 2019
Sweat monitoring is an effective procedure
to detect early signs or precursors of some
psychophysical diseases. A compact wireless flexible
on-skin pH sensor is here proposed for integration with
Radiofrequency Identification in the UHF band. The
peculiarity is its simplicity and minimal amount of
required electronic components. The device comprises a
printed multilayer pH sensor and an energy harvesting
antenna optimized for application onto the human skin.
Preliminary experiments demonstrated that the device is
capable to capture a pH range compatible with
physiologic data and to exchange data up to 1m without
need of battery.
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F. Amato, S. Amendola and G.
Marrocco, "Upper-bound
Performances of RFID Epidermal Sensor
Networks at 5G Frequencies", BSN 2019,
Chicago (USA), 19-22 May, 2019
5G will play a key role in developing high
speed wearable and epidermal electronics for healthcare
applications such as patient monitoring, tele-surgery,
and augmented sensorial abilities (both for humans and
robots). At the same time, developing a 5G-RFID system
based on backscattering communication will help reducing
the power consumption and lowering the electronic
complexity. Nevertheless, the high path losses and the
strong electromagnetic interactions of the skin might
severely limit ranges and performances of epidermal
RFIDs operating at 5G frequencies. In this paper, the
effects of the human skin on the link budget of
epidermal RFID dipoles at microwave and mmWave
frequencies are investigated through numerical
simulations. Results show that an epidermal RFID sensor
tags can reach ranges comparable with UHF systems by
using either a single dipole at 5.8 GHz or a 23-element
array of dipoles at 60 GHz when using the currently
available chip sensitivities (-15 dBm) and reader
antenna gains (6 dBi). Smaller antenna sizes of a 5G
RFID sensor will allow the integration of tags in new
ubiquitous non-invasive epidermal and wearable
electronics, while the high frequencies will enable
tracking with mm- and micro-scale resolutions for
medical applications (e.g.: micro-ablation or muscular
and neural rehabilitation).
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S. Nappi, P.P Valentini and
G. Marrocco, "Conformal
Space-Filling Electromagnetic Skins for the
Wireless Monitoring of 3D Object Integrity",
EUCAP 2019, Kracov, Polland
The widespread use of
polymer-based objects such as pipes, cables, tiles,
gaskets in a wide range of applications demands for
large scale a regular monitoring of their health sta-
tus in order to prevent potential failures during
service. Indeed, the exposure of these objects to
mechanical or chemical stressing agents may accelerate
their aging process thus decreasing their natural
lifetime. A non-invasive and early monitoring of these
aging signs (such as surface defects) may enable a
predictive maintenance in order to avoid, or at least
to minimize, unexpected failures.
This paper describes a wireless crack detection
method based on space-filling curves working like an
electromagnetic second- skin enveloping the object.
The conformal sensor permits to remotely transmit the
presence of small defects over the object by using
Radio Frequency Identification antennas and microchip
transponders provided with anti-tampering features.
The pro- posed idea is corroborated by numerical
modeling and by some experimentations with a plastic
pipe joint coated by a three- cells sensing skin made
by silver conductive paint that is suitable to enable
a wireless robust crack detection system up to 1.5m
distance.
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G. M Bianco and G. Marrocco,
"Fingertip
Self-tuning RFID Antennas for the Discrimination
of Dielectric Objects", EUCAP 2019,
Kracov, Polland
Self-tuning RFID antennas
are based on a new family of multi-state microchips
capable of automatically adapting an internal reactive
network in order to maximize the power harvested by
the attached antenna when boundary conditions change.
This concept can be applied to develop a
radio-frequency fingertip-augmented device (R-FAD) to
be used as dielectric- probe on a finger to
discriminate different kinds materials and their
discontinuities. When the finger, provided with a
self-tuning epidermal tag, comes in touch with an
object, the modification of the input impedance of the
tag, related to the object’s material, can be
retrieved by an interrogating reader placed on the
wrist. Possible applications concern the aid to
impaired people suffering from peripheral neuropathy
or eyesight deficiency, but even the inclusion in
robotic prosthesis. The modeling and design and
characterisation of the epidermal self-tuning tag is
here presented for the first time and the idea is
corroborated by some experimental tests with a system
prototype.
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C. Miozzi, G. Marrocco, “An
Epidermal Configurable Antenna System for the
Monitoring of Biophysical Parameters,”
22th Riunione Nazionale di Elettromagnetismo (RiNEm
2018), Cagliari (IT), September 2018
Skin sensors based on Radiofrequency
Identification enable non-invasive monitoring of human
physiologic parameters. To speed up the experimentations
of new sensing modalities and their possible
applications, a general-purpose on- skin oriented board
is here described. A 3 cm by 3 cm flexible Kapton layer
hosts a miniaturized open-loop antenna tuneable in the
worldwide UHF RFID band 860- 960 MHz, a microchip with
internal ADC and pads for interconnecting external
sensors and a battery for data-logging mode. When
working in Battery Assisted Passive mode it can be read
up to 1.5 m and hence the wearer can automatically
upload the stored data in mobility. The device is
preliminarily experimented in the measurement of the
skin temperature and moisture on clothes.
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S. Nappi, G. Marrocco, “Gosper
Space-Filling Radiofrequency-Skin for the
Detection and Identification of Surface Cracks,”
22th Riunione Nazionale di Elettromagnetismo (RiNEm
2018), Cagliari (IT), September 2018.
The aging of polymer-based objects (tires, cable harness, paints, gaskets) may appear as the formation of surface defects like cracks and scratches. An early detection of such signs may support the Predictive Maintenance in the Industry 4.0 paradigm of critical polymeric devices before the occurrence of a severe damage. Inkjet printed Space Filling Curves (SFC) are here proposed as an artificial electric skin, suitable to be integrated with an RFID tag, at the purpose to detect and remotely transmit the presence of small aging signs of a surface. Thanks to the particular properties of the Gosper SFC, the size and space resolution of the skin can be easily controlled by few parameters.
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| Books Chapters | ||||||||||||
 |
Wearable
Sensors (2nd
Edition), Editor: Edward
Sazonov, 2020 Our contribution is Chapter 5: S. Amendola, C. Occhiuzzi, C. Miozzi, S. Nappi, F. Amato, F. Camera, G. Marrocco, "UHF Epidermal Sensors: Technology and Applications", Pages 133-161 |
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| AWARDS | ||||||||||||
 S. Nappi at RINEM 2020 Gaetano Latmiral Award |
Gaetano Latmiral Award for Best work proposed by PhD Students |
|||||||||||
 F. Camera at URSI GASS 2020 Young Scientist Award |
Young Scientist Award |
|||||||||||
 G. M. Bianco at URSI GASS 2020 Young Scientist Award |
Young Scientist Award |
|||||||||||
 Prof. MARROCCO at BSN 2019 Chicago (USA) - 3rd Best Paper |
3rd prize as Best Paper |
|||||||||||
 Carolina MIOZZI at
RINEM 2018
Cagliari (IT) - CNIT Award |
Best paper under 35 |
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| PRESS RELEASE | ||||||||||||
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«Covid,
un cerotto riesce a monitorare la febbre da
virus». Lo studio dell'università di Tor
Vergata |
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«Covid, un cerotto riesce a monitorare la febbre da virus». Lo studio dell'università di Tor Vergata | |||||||||||
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Da Tor Vergata un cerotto per la rilevazione digitale della febbre | |||||||||||
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Da Tor Vergata un cerotto per la rilevazione digitale della febbre | |||||||||||
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FOCUS – Arriva il cerotto anti Covid, misura la temperatura a distanza | |||||||||||
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Questo
cerotto anti COVID misura la febbre con
precisione e può ridurre la diffusione del
virus |
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Cerotto anti Covid: come funziona e perché può ridurre la diffusione del virus | |||||||||||
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Covid, un cerotto per monitorare il virus: la scoperta a Roma | |||||||||||
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Covid-19, un cerotto per la misurazione della temperatura, lo studio dell’Università Tor Vergata | |||||||||||
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«Covid, un cerotto riesce a monitorare la febbre da virus». Lo studio dell'università di Tor Vergata | |||||||||||
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Covid: un cerotto riesce a monitorare meglio la febbre | |||||||||||
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FOCUS – Arriva il cerotto anti Covid, misura la temperatura a distanza | |||||||||||
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UN CEROTTO CONTRO IL COVID: LA NUOVA SCOPERTA ITALIANA | |||||||||||
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Coronavirus, l’Università Tor Vergata di Roma ha sviluppato un cerotto che può ridurre la diffusione del virus | |||||||||||
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FOCUS – Arriva il cerotto anti Covid, misura la temperatura a distanza | |||||||||||
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Questo cerotto anti COVID misura la febbre con precisione e può ridurre la diffusione del virus | |||||||||||
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Covid: un cerotto potrebbe misurare la febbre e prevenire i contagi | |||||||||||
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Ultime
notizie cerotti - Questo cerotto anti COVID
misura la febbre con precisione e può
ridurre la diffusione del virus |
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FOCUS – Arriva il cerotto anti Covid, misura la temperatura a distanza | |||||||||||
