Wide-range soft anisotropic thermistor with a direct wireless radio frequency interface

Mahmoud Wagih (), Junjie Shi, Menglong Li, Abiodun Komolafe, Thomas Whittaker, Johannes Schneider, Shanmugam Kumar, William Whittow and Steve Beeby
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Mahmoud Wagih: University of Glasgow, James Watt School of Engineering
Junjie Shi: University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Computer Science
Menglong Li: University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Computer Science
Abiodun Komolafe: University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Computer Science
Thomas Whittaker: Loughborough University, Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical, and Manufacturing Engineering
Johannes Schneider: University of Glasgow, James Watt School of Engineering
Shanmugam Kumar: University of Glasgow, James Watt School of Engineering
William Whittow: Loughborough University, Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical, and Manufacturing Engineering
Steve Beeby: University of Southampton, School of Electronics and Computer Science

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Temperature sensors are one of the most fundamental sensors and are found in industrial, environmental, and biomedical applications. The traditional approach of reading the resistive response of Positive Temperature Coefficient thermistors at DC hindered their adoption as wide-range temperature sensors. Here, we present a large-area thermistor, based on a flexible and stretchable short carbon fibre incorporated Polydimethylsiloxane composite, enabled by a radio frequency sensing interface. The radio frequency readout overcomes the decades-old sensing range limit of thermistors. The composite exhibits a resistance sensitivity over 1000 °C−1, while maintaining stability against bending (20,000 cycles) and stretching (1000 cycles). Leveraging its large-area processing, the anisotropic composite is used as a substrate for sub-6 GHz radio frequency components, where the thermistor-based microwave resonators achieve a wide temperature sensing range (30 to 205 °C) compared to reported flexible temperature sensors, and high sensitivity (3.2 MHz/°C) compared to radio frequency temperature sensors. Wireless sensing is demonstrated using a microstrip patch antenna based on a thermistor substrate, and a battery-less radio frequency identification tag. This radio frequency-based sensor readout technique could enable functional materials to be directly integrated in wireless sensing applications.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-44735-z

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