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This paper presents a power-generating sensor array in a flexible and stretchable form. The proposed device is composed of a woven structure that provides various features, including a capacitive tactile sensor, piezoresistive strain sensor, triboelectric energy harvester, and piezoelectric energy harvester. The device is implemented in a textile structure using functional threads implemented with lead zirconate, carbon nanotube, polydimethylsiloxane, and silver nanowire (Ag NW). A stretching force can be detected by measuring the resistance change in the Ag NW composite layer on each thread. Further, the magnitude and location of the vertical force can be detected by measuring the capacitance variation on each capacitive cell that is formed by the gap between two Ag NW layers at the crossing points of each weft and warp thread. For the energy harvesters, the maximum power was measured as 108 μW at 3 MΩ from the triboelectric energy harvesting when the device was pushed in the vertical direction. When a stretching force was applied, a maximum of 60.3 μW at 1 MΩ was measured from the piezoelectric energy harvester.

In this work, we report surface-modified nickel (Ni) wire/NiCo2O4/reduced graphene oxide (Ni/NCO/RGO) electrodes fabricated by a combination of facile solvothermal and hydrothermal deposition methods for wire-shaped supercapacitor application. The effect of Ni wire etching on the microstructural, surface morphological and electrochemical properties of Ni/NCO/RGO electrodes was investigated in detail. On account of the improved hybrid nanostructure and the synergistic effect between spinel-NiCo2O4 hollow microspheres and RGO nanoflakes, the electrode obtained from Ni wire etched for 10 min, i.e., Ni10/NCO/RGO exhibits the lowest initial equivalent resistance (1.68 Ω), and displays a good rate capability with a volumetric capacitance (2.64 F/cm3) and areal capacitance (25.3 mF/cm2). Additionally, the volumetric specific capacitance calculated by considering only active material volume was found to be as high as 253 F/cm3. It is revealed that the diffusion-controlled process related to faradaic volume processes (battery type) contributed significantly to the surface-controlled process of the Ni10/NCO/RGO electrode compared to other electrodes that led to the optimum electrochemical performance. Furthermore, the wire-shaped supercapacitor (WSC) was fabricated by assembling two optimum electrodes in-twisted structure with gel electrolyte and the device exhibited 10 μWh/cm3 (54 mWh/kg) energy density and 4.95 mW/cm3 (27 W/kg) power density at 200 μA. Finally, the repeatability, flexibility, and scalability of WSCs were successfully demonstrated at various device lengths and bending angles.

Nano-structured palladium (Pd) is advantageous in the sensitive detection of hydrogen because of its large surface area. However, the formation of Pd nanostructure is not easy but requires expensive and complicated processes. In this work, we proposed hydrothermal growing of nano-needles and its application to hydrogen gas sensor. In this way, the physical parameters of the nanostructures such as length and diameter can be easily controlled during the hydrothermal process. In addition, fast response time and high sensitivity can be obtained because the hydrogen gas can be easily absorbed into the thin Pd layer resulting in the fast and steep change of the conductance.

We propose a wide dynamic range capacitive force sensor with two wrinkle-structured elastomer layers as a dielectric layer. The sensor consists of electrodes on each substrate and two dielectric layers between them. The electrode is made of platinum and fabricated by using a lift-off process. The polyimide film is used as a substrate. Two wrinkle-structured dielectric layers, which are placed in perpendicular direction, are made by poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) replica molding process. With the pressure applied on the device, dielectric layers deform while decreasing distance between the electrodes and thus increasing the capacitance of the sensor. The orthogonally positioned wrinkled structures make possible to increase the dynamic range of the capacitive cell. The proposed capacitive sensor operates in the pressure range of 1 MPa with the maximum sensitivity of 0.06%/kPa.

We report a “dual nanostructures” where MnO 2 nano-hairs cover NiCo 2 O 4 nano-needles forming NiCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 double nanostructures. The NiCo 2 O 4 @MnO 2 double nanostructures were synthesized by simple two-steps hydrothermal synthesis on the etched surface of nickel (Ni) wire. These structures were applied to form high capacity of fiber-shaped super-capacitor which was fully fabricated and demonstrated in this work.

This research developed a textile coil inductor, in which conductive yarn was wound spirally onto textile, and produced an energy harvesting module utilizing a cylindrical compression coil spring structure to allow a permanent magnet to spin in the center hole of the coil inductor. The study confirmed through a pilot test that the voltage increased as the number of laminated layers of the coil inductor increased. Five subjects were tested in the energy harvesting measuring experiment after producing a sports shoe insole-mounted energy harvesting module. While the subjects executed sports motions such as walking and running at five given frequencies, the peak-to-peak voltage was measured by an oscilloscope and the accumulated energy voltage of the calculated rms voltage (Vrms) and the peak power (㎼) were derived. The output voltage increased as the frequency increased and the average Vp-p (V) of the five subjects was 0.53 V, the average peak power (㎼) was 0.289 ㎼, and the Vrms (V) was 0.065 V. This research is significant in that it suggests the possibility of an energy harvesting module based upon the textile coil inductor emerging from the former shoes’ energy generator packaging method for heavy shoe types by developing a lightweight, flexible, and human-friendly footgear module structure.

Using glucose concentration as an inflammation responsive element, we newly established an enzymeless glucose sensor integrated with a chronically implantable peripheral nerve cuff electrode for continuous and in-situ monitoring of local inflammation. The glucose sensor integrated with a nerve cuff electrode was fabricated on a polyimide substrate side-by-side, then the glucose sensor and nerve cuff electrode were reversely folded, and were located inside and outside, respectively. The experimental results reveal that the electroplated black Pt working electrode of the glucose sensor shows an enhancive surface roughness factor of 16.41 and had a good distribution on the flexible polyimide surface, which exhibits distinctly enhanced electro-catalytic activity compared to that obtained with plain Pt. Amperometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy indicated that the fabricated sensor had a sensitivity of 7.17 μA/mM cm 2 , an outstanding detection limit of 10 μM, significant selectivity, and excellent recovery performance for enzymeless glucose detection. In order to evaluate the feasibility for inflammation monitoring in the immediate vicinity of the implantable peripheral nerve cuff electrode, the association of an evoked nerve signal recording and glucose concentration was investigated through ex-vivo test using the sciatic nerve of a SD rat.

In this paper, we proposed a dual-mode intraocular pressure (IOP) sensor that has two separated diaphragms to conduct the changes of inductance and capacitance, and we compared the sensor’s performance with that of the conventional single variable capacitive sensor (single-mode sensor). Both mode sensors were used to monitor the pressure in in vitro tests with multiple media and in in vivo tests with rabbits. First, we demonstrated that the sensitivities of two types of sensors tended to be different for in vivo and in vitro tests. This was the first known attempt to show changes in the sensitivity and responsivity of IOP sensors in in vivo tests. The sensitivity and phase dip of the dual-mode sensor exceeded that of the single-mode sensor, irrespective of medium due to isolation of capacitive sensor from medium. In this paper, we have provided the equations that were used to evaluate the improvement in sensitivity, and we have shown the coincidence with in vitro and in vivo tests. Based on the results we achieved, we believe that the dual-mode sensor is more feasible for use as an IOP sensor in in vivo tests, because its responsivity and sensitivity are superior to those of the conventional sensors. [2014-0379]

The development of low or room temperature gas sensors having a response towards a particular target gas becomes a fascinating research topic for low power consumption applications. In this paper, a sensitive room-temperature hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas sensors based on hydrothermally synthesized undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) and Cu-doped ZnO (CZO) nanostructures decorated with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) are successfully demonstrated. A simple air-spray deposition is employed as an effective method for uniform GO decoration on CZO nanostructured film which is further chemically reduced to form RGO. The influence of Cu-doping on crystallinity, surface-morphological, and chemical compositional properties of the material have been systematically investigated. The gas sensing properties of the synthesized nanocomposite sensors have been studied towards H2S at room temperatures (∼24 °C). Compared with undoped ZnO/RGO, 3CZO/RGO nanocomposite sensor exhibited a better response towards H2S. The sensor response increases almost linearly with the increase in H2S gas concentration and exhibits the evident response of 0.87%–100 ppm H2S at 24 °C with the response and recovery time of 14 and 32 s, and a theoretical limit of detection of about 136 ppb. The enhancement was accredited to the collegial effect of both Cu dopant and RGO. The sensor also shows good selective behavior towards H2S against H2. The H2S sensing mechanism associated with the p-type behavior of the 3CZO/RGO sensor is also discussed at length.

This paper demonstrates a polyimide nerve cuff electrode with a controllable drug loading/release function for stable recording of peripheral nerve signals and stimulation and minimizing inflammation. For control of anti-inflammatory drug loading/release, dexamethasone (DEX)-loaded poly L -lactic acid (PLLA) and/or poly lactic-co-glycol acid (PLGA) nanofibers were deposited on a functional nerve cuff electrode by the electro-spinning method, which can control the weight of DEX loading on the functional nerve cuff electrode. Then, UV patternable polyethylene glycol (PEG) was coated on the functional nerve cuff with DEX-loaded nanofibers for the acceleration of the release rate of the drug. Through high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), DEX release rates were increased from 16 to 28% (PLLA-loaded nanofibers) and from 68 to 87% (PLGA-loaded nanofibers) due to the increased diffusion rate of DEX after 28 days, respectively. In addition, the functional nerve cuff electrode was electro-polymerized with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) as a conductive polymer in order to recover the decreased electrical properties caused by PEG patterning. The impedance measured at 1 kHz was 342 Ω mm2, which was extremely lower than the value of 1046 Ω mm2 of PEG-patterned cuff electrodes. Through the acute ex-vivo test of SD rat's sciatic nerve, the functional nerve cuff electrode with PEDOT:PSS exhibited stable and effective recording of the nerve's signals despite PEG patterning.

Multimodal tactile display systems that are capable of delivering versatile tactile information effectively are of great interest for virtual reality and tele-operation applications. In this paper, we present a new flexible multimodal tactile display system that delivers shape and texture information simultaneously using a single actuator. The proposed tactile display is actuated by a combination of electromagnetic and pneumatic forces and thus exhibits high tactile force to deliver shape information and large vibration amplitude to deliver texture information. In addition, the proposed tactile display device was implemented on a flexible PDMS structure to allow for tight attachment on any curved body to transfer reliable tactile information. By applying a current pulse of 300 mA for 5 ms, we readily controlled the state of the tactile actuator and measured the actuation displacement of 900 μm and the generated force of 20.1 gf. The average vibration amplitude of 30 μm was measured over a wide dynamic range (25---650 Hz) with an applied current of 74 mA. Lastly, by delivering various tactile information to users, we verified the functionalities of the implemented 4 ? 1 multimodal tactile display array. User study results showed that the fabricated multimodal tactile display system successfully delivered both shape information with an accuracy of 73 % and texture information with an accuracy of 90 %. This work demonstrates the potential of our multimodal tactile display system for uses in various applications such as tele-operation, tactile communication, and visual presentation for visually impaired.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a pneumatic tactile display with a Flexible Printed Circuit Board (FPCB) based capacitive position sensor integrated for precise position control. The proposed tactile display was designed to stimulate human finger in tangential direction. The size of the fabricated display was 18 mm × 18 mm × 20 mm. The position control range was 2.5 mm for each x and y axis. The resolution of position control was estimated from three repeated experiments as 0.12 mm with feedback control. The hysteresis behavior of the proposed display observed before feedback control has been eliminated.

This study demonstrates a polyimide nerve cuff electrode with a conductive polymer for improving recording signal quality at periph-eral nerve. The nerve cuff electrodes with platinum (Pt), iridium oxide (IrOx), and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): p-toluene sul-fonate (PEDOT:pTS) were fabricated and investigated their electrical characteristics for improving recorded nerve signal quality. Thefabricated nerve cuff electrodes with Pt, IrOx, and PEDOT:pTS were characterized their impedance and CDC by using electrochemicalimpedance spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry. The impedance of PEDOT:pTS measured at 1 kHz was 257Ω, which wasextremely lower than the value of the nerve cuff electrodes with IrOx (15897 Ω) and Pt (952Ω), respectively. Furthermore, the chargedelivery capacity (CDC) of the nerve cuff electrode with PEDOT:pTS was dramatically increased to 62 times than the nerve cuff elec-trode with IrOx. In ex-vivo test using extracted sciatic nerve of spaque-dawley rat (SD rat), the PEDOT:pTS group exhibited higher sig-nal-to-interference ratio than IrOx group. These results indicated that the nerve cuff electrode with PEDOT:pTS is promising foreffective implantable nerve signal recording.Keywords: Nerve cuff electrode, Neural signal recording, Iridium oxide, PEDOT:pTS, ex-vivo test

In this paper, we propose a three-axis pneumatic tactile display that is precisely controlled by using integrated capacitive displacement sensors. The proposed tactile display consists of a core body with a 3 × 3 balloon array on its top surface, four lateral balloons made of latex rubber, and inner and outer frames that include capacitive displacement sensors based on a flexible printed circuit board. The 3 × 3 balloon array on the core body is designed to apply normal haptic stimulation to a human fingertip. In addition, the lateral motions of the core body and each frame produce haptic stimulation in a tangential direction. Precise control of lateral motion was achieved by feedback control using the capacitive displacement sensors. The size of the fabricated tactile display was 26 × 26 × 18 mm3. We experimentally performed manipulation of the proposed device with a custom control system, thereby demonstrating accurate control of displacement.

We had presented an inductive type intraocular pressure sensor (L-sensor) in previous work. The distance between a micro coil anda ferrite on the membrane was modulated by pressure, and as a result the inductance and resonant frequency were changed. However,L-sensor has some problems to implant in eyes. First problem is low sensitivity. When L-sensor was implanted in rabbit’s eyes, resonantfrequency of L-sensor was very hard to detect. Second problem is biocompatibility. Size of L-sensor is 6×7×1.2 mm. When L-sensorwas implanted in the eyes, it caused the inflammation. Therefore, this study suggests an inductive and capacitive type IOP sensor (LC-sensor). The sensitivity of the LC-sensor 27.3 kHz/mmHg under 60 mmHg. It is much larger than 14 kHz/mmHg of the L-sensor. Andthe size of LC-sensor is 47% smaller than L-sensor. After 2 weeks from the implantation of LC-sensor into rabbit eyes, we measuredthe changes of resonant frequency of LC-sensor according to increased IOP by Balanced Salt Solution (BSS) injection. As a result, thesensitivity of LC-sensor in in vivo test is 25 kHz/mmHg. That is similar to the sensitivity of in vitro test.Keywords: Glaucoma, Intraocular pressure (IOP), IOP sensor, in vivo, Wireless, Implantable

We propose flexible triboelectric energy harvester having a strain sensor property having hollow tube structure. The device was implemented by using flexible silicone tube where the silver nanowire layer is deposited on outer surface. When the tube is pressed or strained in axial direction, output power is generated by triboelectric effect. The output voltage and power of this device was measured as 23.4 V and 201 µW at 3 Hz. In addition, the device shows a piezoresistive property when longitudinal force is applied, which can be utilized as strain sensor that can be detected by measuring the resistance of the wires.

In this paper, we propose a modified frequency up-conversion mechanism to lower the operational acceleration level for energy harvesting devices using a snap-through buckling phenomenon. The proposed device consists of a buckled bridge beam clamped on flexible sidewalls with a proof mass and cantilever beams attached to the bridge. When subject to a vibration, the buckled bridge beam snaps through between two stable states, inducing impulsive acceleration on the attached piezoelectric cantilevers. During the snap-through transition, the flexible sidewalls deflect outward, thus lowering the threshold acceleration value for the state transition. Various sidewall materials with different flexibilities were tested to determine the maximum output power, bandwidth, and output characteristics for various input acceleration values. The minimum acceleration value for snap-through transition was 0.5g (g = 9.8 m/s2) when using latex sidewalls. A maximum output power of 0.4 mW Hz/cm2--that is 10 μW for test sample at an excitation frequency of 15 Hz--was generated by using the proposed device with latex sidewalls.

This paper proposes a tactile display providing both shear and normal feedback to the fingertip for generating three-axis tactile feedback during teleoperation of a surgical robot. The display is composed of five balloons actuated by controlling the pneumatic pressure. The implemented display is 18 mm × 18 mm × 15 mm. This size is suitable for mounting the display onto the master controls of a surgical robot. The maximum normal and shear displacements are 2 and 1.3 mm, respectively. The proposed tactile display may provide perceivable stimuli to a human finger pad in all five directions: normal, distal, proximal, radial, and ulnar. This paper also reports on the results of psychophysical measurement of the minimum perceivable movement of the developed tactile display for each of the five directions.

Electrostatic capacitors have high power density but low energy density. In contrast, batteries and fuel cells have high energy density but low power density. However, supercapacitors can simultaneously achieve both high power density and energy density. Herein, we propose a supercapacitor, in which etched nickel wire was used as a current collector due to its high conductivity. Two redox reactive materials, MnO2 nanoflakes and NiCo2O4 nanoneedles, were used in a hierarchical structure to cover the roughened surface of the Ni wire to maximize the effective surface area. Thus, a specific capacitance, energy density, and power density of 14.4 F/cm3, 2 mWh/cm3, and 0.1 W/cm3, respectively, was obtained via single-electrode experiments. A fiber-shaped supercapacitor was prepared by twisting two electrodes with solid electrolytes made of KOH and polyvinyl alcohol. Although the solid electrolyte had a low ionic conductivity, the energy density and power density were determined to be 0.97 mWh/cm3 and 49.8 mW/cm3, respectively.

We propose a fully liquid-based energy harvester that uses ferrofluid droplets as a movable dielectric material. The proposed device consists of top and bottom plates with conducting electrodes coated with a thin solid dielectric layer, a conducting liquid, and oil-based ferrofluid droplets as movable dielectric layers. The rotational motion of the ferrofluid droplets is actuated by a magnetic field that causes a capacitance variation that is used to generate electric power. An average output power of $19.3~\mu \text{W}$ is generated when eight ferrofluid droplets are used at a rotational speed of 180 r/min. [2014-0387]

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and experimental demonstration of an artificial hair sensor made of polymer materials. Long polymer hair structures embedded with flexible three-dimensional piezoresistive sensors were formed on a flexible substrate in two-dimensional arrays to detect an applied external force. The flexible piezoresistor was implemented using a carbon nanotube-polydimethylsiloxane (CNT-PDMS) composite prepared by the mixing of multi-wall carbon nanotubes with PDMS. A CNT-PDMS composite with high conductivity and a high gauge factor was obtained by increasing the CNT concentration in PDMS. In this study, we used a 13% CNT-PDMS composite for fabricating the sensing element that was embedded in the proposed hair sensor. The hair sensor is 4 mm in height and 700 μm in diameter. The implemented device shows a linear and sensitive response in the on-axis mode with a sensitivity of 2900 ppm/μm.

This paper discusses a flexible energy harvester that consists of a polyvinylidene fluoride film attached to a curved substrate in a shell shape for harvesting energy from human motion. The proposed harvester effectively converts mechanical energy into electrical energy during the fast state transition of the shell structure. The results of an experiment demonstrated that shell structures with various curvatures produce high output potential and consequently offer high output power in comparison to a simple flat structure. The single shell structure generates an output power of 0.87 mW at a folding angle of 80° and a folding and unfolding frequency of 3.3 Hz. In addition, fabric with embedded piezoelectric shell structures was designed as an energy harvester in a wearable platform. The fabric, worn on the elbow joints and fingers, generates a high output power of 0.21 mW in spite of slow and irregular motion.

Dopamine (DA) is one kind of neurotransmitter in central nervous system which is indicator of neural disease. For this reason, determination of DA concentration in central nervous system is very important for early diagnosis of neural disease. In this study, we designed micro electrode array and fabricated by MEMS technology. Furthermore, we fabricated 3-D conducting nanostructure on electrode surface for enhanced sensitivity and selectivity due to increased surface area. Compared with macro and normal micro electrode, the 3-D nanostructure modified micro electrode shows better electrical performance. These surface modified pin type electrode was applied to detect low concentration of DA and successfully detect various concentration of DA from 100 μM to 1 μM with linear relationship in the presence of ascorbic acid and uric acid. From these results, our newly designed electrode shows possibility to be applied as brain biosensor for neural disease diagnosis such as Parkinson's diseases.

This paper describes an energy harvester which uses triboelectric and piezoelectric effect simultaneously to harvest the mechanical energy. The vertical vibration is converted into horizontal force through the hinge structure to apply stress on woven piezoelectric films. In addition, the vertical motion induces the triboelectric energy generation due to the contact between top plate and woven structures. The nano structured metal and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surfaces were used to enhance the triboelectric effect. The maximum output voltage of 24 Vp-p and 291 Vp-p was simultaneously obtained from the triboelectric and piezoelectric effects, respectively, during the device operation at 9Hz.

In this paper, we propose a skin attachable piezoelectric energy harvester which was implemented by using magnetic alignment of cobalt (Co)-doped zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) to enhance the piezoelectric effect. Co-doped ZnO NRs with ferromagnetic property can be easily obtained by hydrothermal process, and their uni-directional alignment can be obtained by applying external magnetic field. In addition, double layers of platinum (Pt) and graphene were deposited on the surface as a flexible and stretchable electrode with high electric conductivity. The maximum open-circuit voltage of 17.4 Vp-p and short-circuit current of 0.26 μA was obtained at 4 Hz folding/unfolding operations.

In this paper, we propose a simple and low-cost fabrication technique for patterning carbon nanotube (CNT) films on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which can be used in flexible sensors and electronics. We demonstrate CNT patterning on both recessed and flat PDMS surfaces using a standard photolithography method. By this proposed technique, we were able to fabricate a CNT film, having a high flexibility and good conductivity, on a PDMS surface. A CNT pattern with a minimum feature resolution of 150 μm was obtained using the proposed fabrication technique. The sheet resistance of the CNT film on the PDMS surface was determined to be in the 100–280 Ω/sq range. The thickness and resultant resistivity of the CNT film can be easily controlled by controlling just the spray duration. Furthermore, the gauge factor of the proposed device is higher than that of metal and it increases as the thickness of the CNT film increases.

A new high speed AFM probe has been proposed and fabricated. The probe is integrated with PZT actuated cantilever realized in bulk silicon wafer using heavily boron doped silicon as an etch stop layer. The cantilever thickness can be accurately controlled by the boron diffusion process. Thick SCS cantilever and integrated PZT actuator make it possible to be operated at high speed for fast imaging. The resonant frequency of the fabricated probe is 92.9 ㎑ and the maximum deflection is 5.3 ㎛ at 3 V. The fabricated probe successfully measured the surface of standard sample in an AFM system at the scan speed of 600㎛/sec

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a transparent and flexible capacitive tactile sensor which is designed for multi-touch screen application with force sensing. A sensor module is composed of 2D array tactile cells with a spatial resolution of 2 mm to measure the touch force at multiple positions. The device is fabricated by using transparent materials on a transparent plastic substrate. The optical transmittance of the fabricated tactile sensor is approximately 86% in the visible wavelength region, and the maximum bending radius is approximately 30 mm. The cell size is 1 mm × 1 mm, and the initial capacitance of each cell is approximately 900 fF. The tactile response of a cell is measured with a commercial force gauge having a resolution of 1 mN. The sensitivity of a cell is 4%/mN within the full scale range of 0.3 N.

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a microfluidic biochip with integrated actuation electrodes used to manipulate a cell and a microbead by dielectrophoresis and sensing electrodes to detect the trapping by using the impedance detection method. Combining deflective dielectrophoretic barriers with controlled pressure-driven liquid flows allows the accurate control of a cell/microbead in suspensions. The threshold voltage for microbead trapping was experimentally verified at various flow rates. The impedance change caused by the blockage of the electrical conducting path between sensing electrodes with the trapping of an MCF7 cell and a polystyrene microbead was measured. The impedance before the trapping of an MCF7 cell was 10.9 MΩ at 1 kHz and increased to 12 MΩ when the cell was placed between sensing electrodes.

This paper reports on a multifunctional microwell plate developed for lab-on-a-chip applications, such as high-throughput cell assay, drug screening, and microbead-based analyses. The proposed device was designed to provide three consecutive functions: the autonomous capture of biomaterials into multiple microwells in a two-dimensional array; active physical sealing of the microwells for isolation; and specific chemical injection into each microwell. The device was implemented with microfabrication technology using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) structures on a silicon or glass substrate. The multiple functions of the microwell plate were successfully demonstrated in an experiment using microbeads. The parallel positioning of live cells (CHO DG44) in multiple microwell arrays was achieved, as well as the independent injection of foreign solution into a specific target cell. Also the proposed microwell plate was utilized to capture microbeads, for antibody injection into each microwell, for quantum dot (QD) injection, and for fluorescence detection for a feasible demonstration of a microbead-based assay.

This paper presents a power-generating sensor array in a flexible and stretchable form. The proposed device is composed of resistive strain sensors, capacitive tactile sensors, and a triboelectric energy harvester in a single platform. The device is implemented in a woven textile structure by using proposed functional threads. A single functional thread is composed of a flexible hollow tube coated with silver nanowires on the outer surface and a conductive silver thread inside the tube. The total size of the device is 60 × 60 mm² having a 5 × 5 array of sensor cell. The touch force in the vertical direction can be sensed by measuring the capacitance between the warp and weft functional threads. In addition, because silver nanowire layers provide piezoresistivity, the strain applied in the lateral direction can be detected by measuring the resistance of each thread. Last, with regard to the energy harvester, the maximum power and power density were measured as 201 μW and 0.48 W/m², respectively, when the device was pushed in the vertical direction.

In this paper we propose a microfluidic chip that measures the mechanical stiffness of cell membrane using impedance measurement. The microfluidic chip is composed of PDMS channel and a glass substrate with electrode. The proposed device uses patch-clamp technique to capture and deform a target cell and measures impedance of deformed cells. We demonstrated that the impedance increased after the membrane stretched and blocked the channel.