Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a micro-thin thermal sensor that can be attached directly to the user's skin.
Embedded in ultra-fine film, the device can measure temperatures of 25-50 degrees Celsius - an ideal range for monitoring human body temperatures.
The micro-thermometer is just 15 micrometres in thickness: about a quarter of the width of a human hair. The electronic circuit is composed of graphite and a semicrystalline acrylate polymer.
The device has potential uses in wearable health trackers, bandages and monitoring the temperatures of infants. Professor Takao Someya, who heads the research team at the University of Tokyo, says the materials are cheap and already widely used in manufacturing, and believes the device could be commercialised in as little as three years' time.
The sensor, for example, could be printed into adhesive plasters, says Someya. "A plaster applied directly to a wound or after surgery could provide warning of infection by detecting local changes in temperature due to inflammation," he ventured.
"By putting it on the skin of a baby you can easily check the infant's body temperature," he continued.
The researchers have tested the sensor by placing it directly onto a rat's lung to measure the organ's temperature. "The device successfully measured cyclic changes in lung temperature of just 0.1 degree[s] centigrade as the animal breathed, demonstrating its utility as a sensor for monitoring body vital signs in physiological settings," explained research associate Tomoyuki Yokota.
The technology was developed in collaboration with the University of Texas, and the study's findings were published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
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