Joryan Sennesael was runner-up for the Student Best Paper Award for this contribution “Carbon-ink sensing patterns for a contactless smart diaper system” at the IEEE International Conference on Flexible, Printable Sensors and Systems 2024, Tampere, Finland, June 30-July 3, 2024.
IEEE FLEPS is intended to provide a forum for research scientists, engineers, and practitioners throughout the world to present their latest research findings, ideas, and applications in the area of Flexible and Printable Sensors and Systems.
To keep up with the care needs of an increasing population in elderly nursing homes, smart incontinence materials promise to reduce care-taking workload, cut costs and increase user comfort. Therefore, we present two carbon-ink sensors designs that rely on a recently patented differential transmission measurement technique. The proposed sensors are low cost and mass producible, printed directly on the disposable diaper and they interface to the read-out electronics via a reusable flexible strip. In a simulation based on the square resistance of the carbon ink, both designs achieve a similar dynamic range, being most responsive to moisture resistances between 1 kΩ and 100 kΩ. In a practical test on two prototype smart diapers, the designed sensors show promising results by detecting a small volume of only 50 ml, with the two sensors designs being 58% and respectively 55% saturated after adding one litre of moisture.
