Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in the US have made the first wearable and flexible thermometer from arrays of nanosized sensors. The patch-like device, which can measure temperature variations on human skin to a precision of millikelvins, might be used in both hospital settings or at home, says the team. Thermometer patch The researchers, led by John Rogers, made two types of device: the first consists of arrays of sensors that monitor temperature thanks to the change in resistance in slivers of gold just 20 nm thick and 20 microns long. This device is fabricated using standard microlithographic techniques. The second device is made of multiplexed arrays of sensors based on diodes formed by patterned doping of silicon nanomembranes and it measures changes in temperature through changes in the turn-on voltage of the diodes. In both cases, the devices are deposited on thin, low modulus elastic sheets made of the plastic polyimide. “The integrated sensors have physical properties – stiffness, thickness and mass density – that are very similar to those of human skin itself,” explains Rogers. “As a result, when placed on the skin (using water-soluble backing), the patient is hardly aware that he is wearing anything. The

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