Transient magnesium-based thin-film temperature sensor on a flexible, bioabsorbable substrate for future medical applications

In this work, the bioabsorbable materials, namely fibroin, polylactide acid (PLA), magnesium and magnesium oxide are investigated for their application as transient, resistive temperature detectors (RTD). For this purpose, a thin-film magnesium-based meander-like electrode is deposited onto a flexible, bioabsorbable substrate (fibroin or PLA) and encapsulated (passivated) by additional magnesium oxide layers on top and below the magnesium-based electrode. The morphology of different layered RTDs is analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The sensor performance and lifetime of the RTD is characterized both under ambient atmospheric conditions between 30°C and 43°C, and wet tissue-like conditions with a constant temperature regime of 37°C. The latter triggers the degradation process of the magnesium-based layers. The 3-layers RTDs on a PLA substrate could achieve a lifetime of 8.5 h. These sensors also show the best sensor performance under ambient atmospheric conditions with a mean sensitivity of 0.48 Ω/°C ± 0.01 Ω/°C