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Now showing 1 - 10 of 20
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    Nano-biosupercapacitors enable autarkic sensor operation in blood
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2021) Lee, Yeji; Bandari, Vineeth Kumar; Li, Zhe; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana; Maitz, Manfred F.; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Tsurkan, Mikhail V; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Today’s smallest energy storage devices for in-vivo applications are larger than 3 mm3 and lack the ability to continuously drive the complex functions of smart dust electronic and microrobotic systems. Here, we create a tubular biosupercapacitor occupying a mere volume of 1/1000 mm3 (=1 nanoliter), yet delivering up to 1.6 V in blood. The tubular geometry of this nano-biosupercapacitor provides efficient self-protection against external forces from pulsating blood or muscle contraction. Redox enzymes and living cells, naturally present in blood boost the performance of the device by 40% and help to solve the self-discharging problem persistently encountered by miniaturized supercapacitors. At full capacity, the nano-biosupercapacitors drive a complex integrated sensor system to measure the pH-value in blood. This demonstration opens up opportunities for next generation intravascular implants and microrobotic systems operating in hard-to-reach small spaces deep inside the human body.
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    Imperceptible Supercapacitors with High Area-Specific Capacitance
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Ge, Jin; Zhu, Minshen; Eisner, Eric; Yin, Yin; Dong, Haiyun; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Zhu, Feng; Ma, Libo; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Imperceptible electronics will make next-generation healthcare and biomedical systems thinner, lighter, and more flexible. While other components are thoroughly investigated, imperceptible energy storage devices lag behind because the decrease of thickness impairs the area-specific energy density. Imperceptible supercapacitors with high area-specific capacitance based on reduced graphene oxide/polyaniline (RGO/PANI) composite electrodes and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)/H2SO4 gel electrolyte are reported. Two strategies to realize a supercapacitor with a total device thickness of 5 µm—including substrate, electrode, and electrolyte—and an area-specific capacitance of 36 mF cm−2 simultaneously are implemented. First, the void volume of the RGO/PANI electrodes through mechanical compression is reduced, which decreases the thickness by 83% while retaining 89% of the capacitance. Second, the PVA-to-H2SO4 mass ratio is decreased to 1:4.5, which improves the ion conductivity by 5000% compared to the commonly used PVA/H2SO4 gel. Both advantages enable a 2 µm-thick gel electrolyte for planar interdigital supercapacitors. The impressive electromechanical stability of the imperceptible supercapacitors by wrinkling the substrate to produce folds with radii of 6 µm or less is demonstrated. The supercapacitors will be meaningful energy storage modules for future self-powered imperceptible electronics.
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    Compact helical antenna for smart implant applications
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2015) Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Makarov, Denys; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Smart implants are envisioned to revolutionize personal health care by assessing physiological processes, for example, upon wound healing, and communicating these data to a patient or medical doctor. The compactness of the implants is crucial to minimize discomfort during and after implantation. The key challenge in realizing small-sized smart implants is high-volume cost- and time-efficient fabrication of a compact but efficient antenna, which is impedance matched to 50 Ω, as imposed by the requirements of modern electronics. Here, we propose a novel route to realize arrays of 5.5-mm-long normal mode helical antennas operating in the industry-scientific-medical radio bands at 5.8 and 2.4 GHz, relying on a self-assembly process that enables large-scale high-yield fabrication of devices. We demonstrate the transmission and receiving signals between helical antennas and the communication between an antenna and a smartphone. Furthermore, we successfully access the response of an antenna embedded in a tooth, mimicking a dental implant. With a diameter of ~0.2 mm, these antennas are readily implantable using standard medical syringes, highlighting their suitability for in-body implant applications.
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    Magnetic suspension array technology: Controlled synthesis and screening in microfluidic networks
    (Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2016) Lin, Gungun; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Cañón Bermúdez, Gilbert Santiago; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Makarov, Denys
    Information tagging and processing are vital in information‐intensive applications, e.g., telecommunication and high‐throughput drug screening. Magnetic suspension array technology may offer intrinsic advantages to screening applications by enabling high distinguishability, the ease of code generation, and the feasibility of fast code readout, though the practical applicability of magnetic suspension array technology remains hampered by the lack of quality administration of encoded microcarriers. Here, a logic‐controlled microfluidic system enabling controlled synthesis of magnetic suspension arrays in multiphase flow networks is realized. The smart and compact system offers a practical solution for the quality administration and screening of encoded magnetic microcarriers and addresses the universal need of process control for synthesis in microfluidic networks, i.e., on‐demand creation of droplet templates for high information capacity. The demonstration of magnetic suspension array technology enabled by magnetic in‐flow cytometry opens the avenue toward point‐of‐care multiplexed bead‐based assays, clinical diagnostics, and drug discovery.
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    Impedimetric Microfluidic Sensor-in-a-Tube for Label-Free Immune Cell Analysis
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Egunov, Aleksandr I.; Dou, Zehua; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Hebenstreit, Franziska; Kretschmann, Nicole; Akgün, Katja; Ziemssen, Tjalf; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Analytical platforms based on impedance spectroscopy are promising for non-invasive and label-free analysis of single cells as well as of their extracellular matrix, being essential to understand cell function in the presence of certain diseases. Here, an innovative rolled-up impedimetric microfulidic sensor, called sensor-in-a-tube, is introduced for the simultaneous analysis of single human monocytes CD14+ and their extracellular medium upon liposaccharides (LPS)-mediated activation. In particular, rolled-up platinum microelectrodes are integrated within for the static and dynamic (in-flow) detection of cells and their surrounding medium (containing expressed cytokines) over an excitation frequency range from 102 to 5 × 106 Hz. The correspondence between cell activation stages and the electrical properties of the cell surrounding medium have been detected by electrical impedance spectroscopy in dynamic mode without employing electrode surface functionalization or labeling. The designed sensor-in-a-tube platform is shown as a sensitive and reliable tool for precise single cell analysis toward immune-deficient diseases diagnosis.
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    A Rotating Spiral Micromotor for Noninvasive Zygote Transfer
    (Hoboke, NJ : Wiley, 2020) Schwarz, Lukas; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Hebenstreit, Franziska; Naumann, Ronald; Schmidt, Oliver G.; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana
    Embryo transfer (ET) is a decisive step in the in vitro fertilization process. In most cases, the embryo is transferred to the uterus after several days of in vitro culture. Although studies have identified the beneficial effects of ET on proper embryo development in the earlier stages, this strategy is compromised by the necessity to transfer early embryos (zygotes) back to the fallopian tube instead of the uterus, which requires a more invasive, laparoscopic procedure, termed zygote intrafallopian transfer (ZIFT). Magnetic micromotors offer the possibility to mitigate such surgical interventions, as they have the potential to transport and deliver cellular cargo such as zygotes through the uterus and fallopian tube noninvasively, actuated by an externally applied rotating magnetic field. This study presents the capture, transport, and release of bovine and murine zygotes using two types of magnetic micropropellers, helix and spiral. Although helices represent an established micromotor architecture, spirals surpass them in terms of motion performance and with their ability to reliably capture and secure the cargo during both motion and transfer between different environments. Herein, this is demonstrated with murine oocytes/zygotes as the cargo; this is the first step toward the application of noninvasive, magnetic micromotor‐assisted ZIFT.
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    Self-sufficient self-oscillating microsystem driven by low power at low Reynolds numbers
    (Washington, DC [u.a.] : American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2021) Akbar, Farzin; Rivkin, Boris; Aziz, Azaam; Becker, Christian; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Medina-Sánchez, Mariana; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Oscillations at several hertz are a key feature of dynamic behavior of various biological entities, such as the pulsating heart, firing neurons, or the sperm-beating flagellum. Inspired by nature’s fundamental self-oscillations, we use electroactive polymer microactuators and three-dimensional microswitches to create a synthetic electromechanical parametric relaxation oscillator (EMPRO) that relies on the shape change of micropatterned polypyrrole and generates a rhythmic motion at biologically relevant stroke frequencies of up to ~95 Hz. We incorporate an Ag-Mg electrochemical battery into the EMPRO for autonomous operation in a nontoxic environment. Such a self-sufficient self-oscillating microsystem offers new opportunities for artificial life at low Reynolds numbers by, for instance, mimicking and replacing nature’s propulsion and pumping units.
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    A new dimension for magnetosensitive e-skins: active matrix integrated micro-origami sensor arrays
    ([London] : Nature Publishing Group UK, 2022) Becker, Christian; Bao, Bin; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Bandari, Vineeth Kumar; Rivkin, Boris; Li, Zhe; Faghih, Maryam; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Magnetic sensors are widely used in our daily life for assessing the position and orientation of objects. Recently, the magnetic sensing modality has been introduced to electronic skins (e-skins), enabling remote perception of moving objects. However, the integration density of magnetic sensors is limited and the vector properties of the magnetic field cannot be fully explored since the sensors can only perceive field components in one or two dimensions. Here, we report an approach to fabricate high-density integrated active matrix magnetic sensor with three-dimensional (3D) magnetic vector field sensing capability. The 3D magnetic sensor is composed of an array of self-assembled micro-origami cubic architectures with biased anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) sensors manufactured in a wafer-scale process. Integrating the 3D magnetic sensors into an e-skin with embedded magnetic hairs enables real-time multidirectional tactile perception. We demonstrate a versatile approach for the fabrication of active matrix integrated 3D sensor arrays using micro-origami and pave the way for new electronic devices relying on the autonomous rearrangement of functional elements in space.
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    Stress‐Actuated Spiral Microelectrode for High‐Performance Lithium‐Ion Microbatteries
    (2020) Tang, Hongmei; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Neu, Volker; Gabler, Felix; Wang, Sitao; Liu, Lixiang; Li, Yang; Wang, Jiawei; Zhu, Minshen; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    Miniaturization of batteries lags behind the success of modern electronic devices. Neither the device volume nor the energy density of microbatteries meets the requirement of microscale electronic devices. The main limitation for pushing the energy density of microbatteries arises from the low mass loading of active materials. However, merely pushing the mass loading through increased electrode thickness is accompanied by the long charge transfer pathway and inferior mechanical properties for long‐term operation. Here, a new spiral microelectrode upon stress‐actuation accomplishes high mass loading but short charge transfer pathways. At a small footprint area of around 1 mm2, a 21‐fold increase of the mass loading is achieved while featuring fast charge transfer at the nanoscale. The spiral microelectrode delivers a maximum area capacity of 1053 µAh cm−2 with a retention of 67% over 50 cycles. Moreover, the energy density of the cylinder microbattery using the spiral microelectrode as the anode reaches 12.6 mWh cm−3 at an ultrasmall volume of 3 mm3. In terms of the device volume and energy density, the cylinder microbattery outperforms most of the current microbattery technologies, and hence provides a new strategy to develop high‐performance microbatteries that can be integrated with miniaturized electronic devices.
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    Self-assembly as a tool to study microscale curvature and strain-dependent magnetic properties
    (London : Springer Nature, 2022) Singh, Balram; Otálora, Jorge. A.; Kang, Tong H.; Soldatov, Ivan; Karnaushenko, Dmitriy D.; Becker, Christian; Schäfer, Rudolf; Karnaushenko, Daniil; Neu, Volker; Schmidt, Oliver G.
    The extension of 2D ferromagnetic structures into 3D curved geometry enables to tune its magnetic properties such as uniaxial magnetic anisotropy. Tuning the anisotropy with strain and curvature has become a promising ingredient in modern electronics, such as flexible and stretchable magnetoelectronic devices, impedance-based field sensors, and strain gauges, however, has been limited to extended thin films and to only moderate bending. By applying a self-assembly rolling technique using a polymeric platform, we provide a template that allows homogeneous and controlled bending of a functional layer adhered to it, irrespective of its shape and size. This is an intriguing possibility to tailor the sign and magnitude of the surface strain of integrated, micron-sized devices. In this article, the impact of strain and curvature on the magnetic ground state and anisotropy is quantified for thin-film Permalloy micro-scale structures, fabricated on the surface of the tubular architectures, using solely electrical measurements.