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Microsensor Implants
from Annual Report - 2019
by NUS-CDE
Microsensor Implants Make 24/7 Health Monitoring a Reality
The team led by Assistant Professor John Ho from NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with NUS Institute for Health Innovation and Technology, developed a new wireless reader that is not only three-times more sensitive than existing sensors, but also has the capability to read minute changes in a sensor. With this innovation, signals emitted by sub-millimetre microsensors – tiny enough to be injected under the skin – can be picked up.
The technology that has taken two years of research to develop can monitor breathing and heart rate through a 0.9 millimetres battery-free microsensor, which is implanted underneath the skin with a syringe. This is a breakthrough to current developments which either require sensor readers to be placed near sensors to constantly detect signals such as chemical or pressure changes using magnetic fields, or sensors to be large enough to create strong signals in readers.
The team’s achievement was published in August 2019 in the scientific journal “Nature Electronics”. Building on their research findings, the team is looking to develop a suite of passive (batteryfree) microsensors that can monitor various physiological parameters such as glucose, bioelectrical activity and blood chemistry next.
– Asst Prof John Ho, NUS Electrical and Computer Engineering
The highly sensitive wireless technology can monitor health indicators such as blood pressure using microsensors that are tiny enough to be injected under the skin.
The advanced wireless technology developed by Asst Prof John Ho (left) and doctoral student Dong Zhenya (right) can sense implantable microsensors. One of the microsensors is shown on the finger of Mr Dong.
