3D designed battery-free wireless origami pressure sensor

A pressure monitoring structure is a very useful element for a wearable device for health monitoring and sports biomechanics. While pressure sensors have been studied extensively, battery-free functions working in wireless detection have not been studied much. Here, we report a 3D-structured origami-based architecture sensor for wireless pressure monitoring. We developed an architectured platform for wireless pressure sensing through inductor-capacitor (LC) sensors and a monopole antenna. A personalized smart insole with Miura-ori origami designs has been 3D printed together with conductive 3D printed sensors seamlessly. Wireless monitoring of resonant frequency and intensity changes of LC sensors have been demonstrated to monitor foot pressure for different postures. The sensitivity of the wireless pressure sensor is tunable from 15.7 to 2.1 MHz/kPa in the pressure ranges from 0 to 9 kPa and from 10 to 40 kPa, respectively. The proposed wireless pressure-sensing platform can be utilized for various applications such as orthotics, prosthetics, and sports gear.

Taeil Kim, Amirhossein Hassanpoor Kalhori, Tae-Ho Kim, Chao Bao, Woo Soo Kim