Antennas and Propagation of Implanted RFIDs for Pervasive Healthcare Applications

© 2010 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This post-acceptance version of the paper is essentially complete, but may differ from the official copy of record, which can be found at the following web location (subscription required to access full paper): http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2010.205101

On-Body Channel Measurement Using Wireless Sensors

© 2012 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.This post-acceptance version of the paper is essentially complete, but may differ from the official copy of record, which can be found at the following web location (subscription required to access full paper): http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TAP.2012.219693

A review of laser scanning for geological and geotechnical applications in underground mining

Laser scanning can provide timely assessments of mine sites despite adverse challenges in the operational environment. Although there are several published articles on laser scanning, there is a need to review them in the context of underground mining applications. To this end, a holistic review of laser scanning is presented including progress in 3D scanning systems, data capture/processing techniques and primary applications in underground mines. Laser scanning technology has advanced significantly in terms of mobility and mapping, but there are constraints in coherent and consistent data collection at certain mines due to feature deficiency, dynamics, and environmental influences such as dust and water. Studies suggest that laser scanning has matured over the years for change detection, clearance measurements and structure mapping applications. However, there is scope for improvements in lithology identification, surface parameter measurements, logistic tracking and autonomous navigation. Laser scanning has the potential to provide real-time solutions but the lack of infrastructure in underground mines for data transfer, geodetic networking and processing capacity remain limiting factors. Nevertheless, laser scanners are becoming an integral part of mine automation thanks to their affordability, accuracy and mobility, which should support their widespread usage in years to come

Passive low frequency RFID for non-destructive evaluation and monitoring

Ph. D ThesisDespite of immense research over the years, defect monitoring in harsh environmental conditions still presents notable challenges for Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM). One of the substantial challenges is the inaccessibility to the metal surface due to the large stand-off distance caused by the insulation layer. The hidden nature of corrosion and defect under thick insulation in harsh environmental conditions may result in it being not noticed and ultimately leading to failures. Generally electromagnetic NDT&E techniques which are used in pipeline industries require the removal of the insulation layer or high powered expensive equipment. Along with these, other limitations in the existing techniques create opportunities for novel systems to solve the challenges caused by Corrosion under Insulation (CUI). Extending from Pulsed Eddy Current (PEC), this research proposes the development and use of passive Low Frequency (LF) RFID hardware system for the detection and monitoring of corrosion and cracks on both ferrous and non-ferrous materials at varying high temperature conditions. The passive, low cost essence of RFID makes it an enchanting technique for long term condition monitoring. The contribution of the research work can be summarised as follows: (1) implementation of novel LF RFID sensor systems and the rig platform, experimental studies validating the detection capabilities of corrosion progression samples using transient feature analysis with respect to permeability and electrical conductivity changes along with enhanced sensitivity demonstration using ferrite sheet attached to the tag; (2) defect detection using swept frequency method to study the multiple frequency behaviour and further temperature suppression using feature fusion technique; (3) inhomogeneity study on ferrous materials at varying temperature and demonstration of the potential of the RFID system; (4) use of RFID tag with ceramic filled Poly-tetra-fluoro-ethyulene (PTFE) substrate for larger applicability of the sensing system in the industry; (5) lift-off independent defect monitoring using passive sweep frequency RFID sensors and feature extraction and fusion for robustness improvement. This research concludes that passive LF RFID system can be used to detect corrosion and crack on both ferrous and non-ferrous materials and then the system can be used to compensate for temperature variation making it useful for a wider range of applications. However, significant challenges such as permanent deployment of the tags for long term monitoring at higher temperatures and much higher standoff distance, still require improvement for real-world applicability.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) CASE, National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL)

Wireless colorimetric readout to enable resource-limited point-of-care

Patientennahe Diagnostik in Entwicklungsländer birgt spezielle Herausforderungen, die ihren Erfolg bisher begrenzen. Diese Arbeit widmet sich daher der Entwicklung eines in seiner Herstellung skalierbaren und vielseitig einsetzbaren funkbasierten Auslesegerätes für Laborteststreifen. Durch die Kombination einer wachsenden Auswahl an papierbasierten Teststreifendiagnostiken mit gedruckter Elektronik und unter Berücksichtigung des diagnostischen Alltags im südlichen Afrika wurde ein Gerät entwickelt, das Teststreifen zuverlässig ausliest und die Daten per Funk an eine Datenbank übertragen kann. Die Technik basiert auf RFID-Tags (radio frequency identification devices), welche auf verschiedene flexible Substrate gedruckt wurden, um die technische Umsetzbarkeit und Funktionalität zu evaluieren. Um den Preis für die geplante Anwendung niedrig zu halten, wurden unter anderem Papier und Karton als Substrate genutzt. Das Ergebnis dieser Studie sind passive RFID-Tags auf unterschiedlichen, meist günstigen Substraten, die über eine Distanz von über 75 mm betrieben und ausgelesen werden können. Basierend auf der über RFID bereitgestellten Energie und Datenübertragung wurde eine Ausleseeinheit für Standardpapierstreifentests entwickelt und integriert. Durch das Auslesen verschiedener Teststreifen wurde das Gerät evaluiert und in seiner Aussagekraft mit einer scanner-basierten Aufnahme und anschließender Bildanalyse (ImageJ), einem kommerziellen Auslesegerät sowie einer manuellen Auslesung mit Hilfe von Farbtabellen verglichen. Das Gerät kann die Streifen zuverlässig auslesen und die Daten über die RFID-Schnittstelle übertragen. Die funkbasierte Ausleseeinheit ist mit verschiedenen kommerziellen Teststreifen sowohl im biodiagnostischen (lateral flow tests) wie auch im chemischen Bereich (pH-Wert) kompatibel. Die modulare Lösung erlaubt ein breites Einsatzgebiet und führt dadurch zu reduzierten Trainingszeiten der Anwender und einer zuverlässigen Handhabung. Die vorgestellte Lösung ist äußerst kostengünstig und bedarf keiner Wartung, wodurch sie sich sehr gut für den Einsatz in abgelegenen Feldkrankenhäusern eignet. Es wurde ein skalierbarer Prototyp entwickelt, der auf konventionellen Herstellungsverfahren der Verpackungsindustrie aufbaut. Aktuell handelt es sich noch um einen bogenbasierten Prozess, der sich aber prinzipiell auch auf Rolle-zu-Rolle Maschinen übertragen lässt. Bei der Entwicklung des Geräts spielte die Möglichkeit der lokalen Herstellung in den Einsatzländern eine große Rolle. Diese hätte neben der Generierung von Arbeitsplätzen auch den Vorteil einer einfacheren Verteilung der Geräte in ländliche Regionen, in denen sie den größten Nutzen für die Diagnostik erzielen würden

High-throughput large-area plastic nanoelectronics

Large-area electronics (LAE) manufacturing has been a key focus of both academic and industrial research, especially within the last decade. The growing interest is born out of the possibility of adding attractive properties (flexibility, light weight or minimal thickness) at low cost to well-established technologies, such as photovoltaics, displays, sensors or enabling the realisation of emerging technologies such as wearable devices and the Internet of Things. As such there has been great progress in the development of materials specifically designed to be employed in solution processed (plastic) electronics, including organic, transparent metal oxide and nanoscale semiconductors, as well as progress in the deposition methods of these materials using low-cost high-throughput printing techniques, such as gravure printing, inkjet printing, and roll-to-roll vacuum deposition. Meanwhile, industry innovation driven by Moore’s law has pushed conventional silicon-based electronic components to the nanoscale. The processes developed for LAE must strive to reach these dimensions. Given that the complex and expensive patterning techniques employed by the semiconductor industry so far are not compatible with LAE, there is clearly a need to develop large-area high throughput nanofabrication techniques. This thesis presents progress in adhesion lithography (a-Lith), a nanogap electrode fabrication process that can be applied over large areas on arbitrary substrates. A-Lith is a self-alignment process based on the alteration of surface energies of a starting metal electrode which allows the removal of any overlap of a secondary metal electrode. Importantly, it is an inexpensive, scalable and high throughput technique, and, especially if combined with low temperature deposition of the active material, it is fundamentally compatible with large-area fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices on flexible (plastic) substrates. Herein, I present routes towards process optimisation with a focus on gap size reduction and yield maximisation. Asymmetric gaps with sizes below 10 nm and yields of > 90 % for hundreds of electrode pairs generated on a single substrate are demonstrated. These large width electrode nanogaps represent the highest aspect ratio nanogaps (up to 108) fabricated to date. As a next step, arrays of Schottky nanodiodes are fabricated by deposition of a suitable semiconductor from solution into the nanogap structures. Of principal interest is the wide bandgap transparent semiconductor, zinc oxide (ZnO). Lateral ZnO Schottky diodes show outstanding characteristics, with on-off ratios of up to 106 and forward current values up to 10 mA for obtained upon combining a-Lith with low-temperature solution processing. These unique devices are further investigated for application in rectifier circuits, and in particular for potential use in radio frequency identification (RFID) tag technology. The ZnO diodes are found to surpass the 13.56 MHz frequency bernchmark used in commercial applications and approach the ultra-high frequency (UHF) band (hundreds of megahertz), outperforming current state of the art printed diodes. Solution processed fullerene (C60) is also shown to approach the UHF band in this co-planar device configuration, highlighting the viability of a-Lith for enabling large-area flexible radio frequency nanoelectronics. Finally, resistive switching memory device arrays based on a-Lith patterned nanogap aluminium symmetric electrodes are demonstrated for the first time. These devices are based either on empty aluminium nanogap electrodes, or with the gap filled with a solution-processed semiconductor, the latter being ZnO, the semiconducting polymer poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-alt-benzothiadiazole) (F8BT) or carbon nanotube/polyfluorene blends. The switching mechanism, retention time and switching speed are investigated and compared with published data. The fabrication of arrays of these devices illustrates the potential of a-Lith as a simple technique for the realisation of large-area high-density memory applications.Open Acces

On the use of passive UHF RFID tags in the pharmaceutical supply chain: a novel enhanced tag versus high-performance commercial tags

Item-level RFID-based tracing systems are of growing interest both from industrial and scientific standpoints. In such a context, the choice of the most adequate RFID tag, in terms of shape, frequency, size and reading range, is crucial. The potential presence of items containing materials hostile to the electromagnetic propagation exacerbates the problem. In addition, the peculiarities of the different RFID-based checkpoints make the requirements for the tag even more stringent. In this work, the performance of several commercial UHF RFID tags in each step of the pharmaceutical supply chain has been evaluated, confirming the foreseen criticality. On such basis, a guideline for the electromagnetic design of new high-performance tags capable of overcoming such criticalities has been defined. Finally, driven by such guidelines, a new enhanced tag has been designed, realised and tested, demonstrating that high performance item-level tracing systems can actually be implemented also in critical operating conditions. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd

Green magnetite nanocomposite sheet using coprecipitation loading method as a wave absorber in RFID applications

EM wave absorber had been used to solve the RFID interference problem when it is used in near metallic environment. Synthetic polymeric matrix from various cellulosic pulps were used to produce wave absorbers with magnetite as its main reinforcement using two different approaches namely lumen loading method and in-situ coprecipitation method. Since both methods were a successful in terms of green technology and cost reduction, this study focused on enhancing the previous two methods by introducing a new developed method called as coprecipitation loading method. Besides that, the exploration of the compatibility of paddy straw and recycled paper as the magnetic sheet matrix also was done to add the green technology value. Result obtained reveal that paddy straw and recycled paper are very good candidate to be embedded with nano-magnetite particles thus conforming its compatibility to be used as a substrate to produce the wave absorber. All three loading methods have good degree of loading around 18.4% to 34.4%, and VSM data also shows that the magnetic wave absorbers exhibit good superparamagnetic behaviour. The proposed method consume less power to be produced compared to the previous methods thus contributes to green environmental effects. All samples were tested in the HF RFID application near to metallic environment showing great performance in alleviating the interference problem and recover up to 60% of the distance detection by comparing to the commercial wave absorber. By using the loading methods and substrates proposed, this research contributes to the production of Green Magnetite Nanocomposites Sheets using substrate from paddy straw and recycled paper pulp combined with magnetite nanoparticles. Besides that, the introduction of coprecipitation loading method also enables magnetic sheet to be produced using less energy compared to previous methods. Lastly, samples produced indicate that the green magnetic wave absorber do perform its main purpose in the RFID application near metallic environment

An Evaluation of Electromagnetic Exposure While Using Ultra-High Frequency Radiofrequency Identification (UHF RFID) Guns

The aim is to evaluate specific absorption rate (SAR) values from exposure near handheld ultra-high frequency radiofrequency identification readers (UHF RFID guns-small electronic devices, or even portable computers with relevant accessories-emitting up to several watts of electromagnetic field (EMF) to search for RFID sensors (tags) attached to marked objects), in order to test the hypothesis that they have an insignificant environmental influence. Simulations of SAR in adult male and female models in seven exposure scenarios (gun near the head, arm, chest, hip/thigh of the operator searching for tags, or near to the chest and arm of the scanned person or a bystander). The results showed EMF exposure compliant with SAR limits for general public exposure (ICNIRP/European Recommendation 1999/519/EC) at emissions up to 1 W (reading range 3.5-11 m, depending on tag sensitivity). In the worst-case scenario, guns with a reading range exceeding 5 m (>2 W emission) may cause an SAR exceeding the general public limits in the palm of the user and the torso of the user, a bystander, or a scanned person; occupational exposure limits may be exceeded when emission >5 W. Users of electronic medical implants and pregnant women should be treated as individuals at particular risk in close proximity to guns, even at emissions of 1 W. Only UHF RFID guns emitting below 1 W may be considered as environmentally insignificant EMF sources.Results of a research task (II.N.18) carried out within the National Programme “Improvement of safety and working conditions” partly supported in Poland in 2017–2019—within the scope of research and development—by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education/National Centre for Research and Development (Central Institute for Labour Protection—National Research Institute was the Programme’s main co-ordinator) and by the project ‘Electromagnetic Characterisation in Smart Environments of Healthcare and their involvement in Personnel. Occupational and Environmental Health’ (PI14CIII/00056) funding from Sub-Directorate-General for Research Assessment and Promotion in Spain (Instituto de Salud Carlos III).S

New Trends in Beverage Packaging Systems: A Review

New trends in beverage packaging are focusing on the structure modification of packaging materials and the development of new active and/or intelligent systems, which can interact with the product or its environment, improving the conservation of beverages, such as wine, juice or beer, customer acceptability, and food security. In this paper, the main nutritional and organoleptic degradation processes of beverages, such as oxidative degradation or changes in the aromatic profiles, which influence their color and volatile composition are summarized. Finally, the description of the current situation of beverage packaging materials and new possible, emerging strategies to overcome some of the pending issues are discussed