We report an entirely new class of printed electrical gas sensors that are produced at near "zero cost". This technology exploits the intrinsic hygroscopic properties of cellulose fibers within paper; although it feels and looks dry, paper contains substantial amount of moisture, adsorbed from the environment, enabling the use of wet chemical methods for sensing without manually adding water to the substrate. The sensors exhibit high sensitivity to water-soluble gases (e.g., lower limit of detection for NH 3 < 200 parts-per-billion) with a fast and reversible response. The sensors show comparable or better performance (especially at high relative humidity) than most commercial ammonia sensors at a fraction of their price (<$0.02 per sensor). We demonstrate that the sensors proposed can be integrated into food packaging to monitor freshness (to reduce food waste and plastic pollution) or implemented into near-field-communication tags to function as wireless, battery-less gas sensors that can be interrogated with smartphones.

Commercially available metal inks are mainly designed for planar substrates (for example, polyethylene terephthalate foils or ceramics), and they contain hydrophobic polymer binders that fill the pores in fabrics when printed, thus resulting in hydrophobic electrodes. Here, a low-cost binder-free method for the metallization of woven and nonwoven fabrics is presented that preserves the 3D structure and hydrophilicity of the substrate. Metals such as Au, Ag, and Pt are grown autocatalytically, using metal salts, inside the fibrous network of fabrics at room temperature in a two-step process, with a water-based silicon particle ink acting as precursor. Using this method, (patterned) metallized fabrics are being enabled to be produced with low electrical resistance (less than 3.5 Ω sq −1 ). In addition to fabrics, the method is also compatible with other 3D hydrophilic substrates such as nitrocellulose membranes. The versatility of this method is demonstrated by producing coil antennas for wireless energy harvesting, Ag-Zn batteries for energy storage, electrochemical biosensors for the detection of DNA/proteins, and as a substrate for optical sensing by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy. In the future, this method of metallization may pave the way for new classes of high-performance devices using low-cost fabrics.

A highly flexible, stretchable, and mechanically robust low-cost soft composite consisting of silicone polymers and water (or hydrogels) is reported. When combined with conventional acoustic transducers, the materials reported enable high performance real-time monitoring of heart and respiratory patterns over layers of clothing (or furry skin of animals) without the need for direct contact with the skin. The approach enables an entirely new method of fabrication that involves encapsulation of water and hydrogels with silicones and exploits the ability of sound waves to travel through the body. The system proposed outperforms commercial, metal-based stethoscopes for the auscultation of the heart when worn over clothing and is less susceptible to motion artefacts. The system both with human and furry animal subjects (i.e., dogs), primarily focusing on monitoring the heart, is tested; however, initial results on monitoring breathing are also presented. This work is especially important because it is the first demonstration of a stretchable sensor that is suitable for use with furry animals and does not require shaving of the animal for data acquisition.

Rapid screening and low-cost diagnosis play a crucial role in choosing the correct course of intervention when dealing with highly infectious pathogens. This is especially important if the disease-causing agent has no effective treatment, such as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and shows no or similar symptoms to other common infections. Here, we report a disposable silicon-based integrated Point-of-Need transducer (TriSilix) for real-time quantitative detection of pathogen-specific sequences of nucleic acids. TriSilix can be produced at wafer-scale in a standard laboratory (37 chips of 10 × 10 × 0.65 mm in size can be produced in 7 h, costing ~0.35 USD per device). We are able to quantitatively detect a 563 bp fragment of genomic DNA of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis through real-time PCR with a limit-of-detection of 20 fg, equivalent to a single bacterium, at the 35th cycle. Using TriSilix, we also detect the cDNA from SARS-CoV-2 (1 pg) with high specificity against SARS-CoV (2003).

Rapid screening and low-cost diagnosis play a crucial role in choosing the correct course of intervention e.g., drug therapy, quarantine, no action etc. when dealing with highly infectious pathogens. This is especially important if the disease-causing agent has no effective treatment, such as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (the pathogen causing COVID-19), and shows no or similar symptoms to other common infections. We report a silicon-based integrated Point-of-Need (PoN) transducer (TriSilix) that can chemically-amplify and detect pathogen-specific sequences of nucleic acids (NA) quantitatively in real-time. Unlike other silicon-based technologies, TriSilix can be produced at wafer-scale in a standard laboratory; we have developed a series of methodologies based on metal-assisted chemical (wet) etching, electroplating, thermal bonding and laser-cutting to enable a cleanroom-free low-cost fabrication that does not require processing in an advanced semiconductor foundry. TriSilix is, therefore, resilient to disruptions in the global supply chain as the devices can be produced anywhere in the world. To create an ultra-low-cost device, the architecture proposed exploits the intrinsic properties of silicon and integrates three modes of operation in a single chip: i) electrical (Joule) heater, ii) temperature sensor (i.e. thermistor) with a negative temperature coefficient that can provide the precise temperature of the sample solution during reaction and iii) electrochemical sensor for detecting target NA. Using TriSilix, the sample solution can be maintained at a single, specific temperature (needed for isothermal amplification of NA such as Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) or cycled between different temperatures (with a precision of ±1.3 °C) for Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) while the exact concentration of amplicons is measured quantitatively and in real-time electrochemically. A single 4-inch Si wafer yields 37 TriSilix chips of 10×10×0.65 mm in size and can be produced in 7 hours, costing ~US $0.35 per device. The system is operated digitally, portable and low powercapable of running up to 35 tests with a 4000 mAh battery (a typical battery capacity of a modern smartphone). We were able to quantitatively detect a 563-bp fragment (Insertion Sequence IS900) of the genomic DNA of M. avium subsp.paratuberculosis (extracted from cultured field samples) through PCR in real-time with a Limit-of-(which was not certified by peer review)

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We report a method of creating solderable, mechanically robust, electrical contacts to interface (soft) silicone-based strain sensors with conventional (hard) solid-state electronics using a nanoporous Si-Cu composite. The Si-based solder-on electrical contact consists of a copper-plated nanoporous Si top surface formed through metal-assisted chemical etching and electroplating and a smooth Si bottom surface that can be covalently bonded onto silicone-based strain sensors through plasma bonding. We investigated the mechanical and electrical properties of the contacts proposed under relevant ranges of mechanical stress for applications in physiological monitoring and rehabilitation. We also produced a series of proof-of-concept devices, including a wearable respiration monitor, leg band for exercise monitoring, and squeeze ball for monitoring rehabilitation of patients with hand injuries or neurological disorders to demonstrate the mechanical robustness and versatility of the technology developed in real-world applications.

We report a bio-inspired continuous wearable respiration sensor modeled after the lateral line system of fish which is used for detecting mechanical disturbances in the water. Despite the clinical importance of monitoring respiratory activity in humans and animals, continuous measurements of breathing patterns and rates are rarely performed in or outside of clinics. This is largely because conventional sensors are too inconvenient or expensive for wearable sensing for most individuals and animals. The bio-inspired air-silicone composite transducer is placed on the chest and measures respiratory activity by continuously measuring the force applied to an air channel embedded inside a silicone-based elastomeric material. The force applied on the surface of the transducer during breathing changes the air pressure inside the channel, which is measured using a commercial pressure sensor and mixed-signal wireless electronics. We extensively characterized the transducer produced in this work and tested it with humans, dogs, and laboratory rats. The bio-inspired air-silicone composite transducer may enable the early detection of a range of disorders that result in altered patterns of respiration. The technology reported can also be combined with artificial intelligence and cloud computing to algorithmically detect illness in humans and animals remotely, reducing unnecessary visits to clinics.