Nano Energy 32 (2017) 479–487

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Nano Energy
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Self-powered wireless smart patch for healthcare monitoring MARK

1 1 ⁎
Mayue Shi , Hanxiang Wu , Jinxin Zhang, Mengdi Han, Bo Meng, Haixia Zhang
National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A BS T RAC T

Keywords: Wearable electronics provides an opportunity for everyone to own personal healthcare systems. Convenience,
Smart patch versatility and energy conservation are vital elements to extend the functions of wearable electronics. Here we
Self-powered present a self-powered smart patch with wireless transmission ability based on triboelectric effect and
Wireless electrostatic induction to monitor the temperature and motion status of individuals. Spontaneous friction
Wearable electronics
charges are utilized to make the system self-powered. The energy and signal are wirelessly transmitted to the
Physiological monitoring
receiver through electrostatic induction. The wireless transmission efficiency achieved 26.6% with a 16 cm2
receiver while the distance is 1 cm, which shows remarkable capability of near-field wireless transmission. With
different load resistances from 1 Ω to 1 MΩ, the output current of the receiver keeps constant like a current
source. Using a method that transmits energy and signal at the same time, our smart patch can not only collect
energy to drive the commercial sensors, but also work as an active sensor monitoring the motion status of
people. To realize the wearable electrode, a fabric-based conductor with high stability is developed. A
transparent and stretchable silver nanowire (Ag NW) based electrode is fabricated to ensure the compatibility
between the receiver and various surfaces such as smartphones.

1. Introduction
Wearable electronics is advancing to a new era. More and more
functions are being integrated into these devices that people can wear
wherever they go, through the processing of wearable materials and
structures [1–16]. Among all the functions, healthcare monitoring is
particularly promising because it is one of those that can help people,
especially the elders, monitor physiological status, such as sweat
metabolites and skin temperature [1,2], movement disorders [3],
pressure and strain [2,4–6], electrocardiogram [7] as well as heavy
metal in body fluids [8]. However, at present there are several
weaknesses faced by the wearable electronics that prevent them from
developing into the paradigm of flexibility and convenience. While the
necessity of rigid batteries in the healthcare monitoring system makes
it unavoidable for users to frequently recharge as well as inconvenient
to carry, the conductive wires between sensors and analyzing compu-
ters hampers the integration of the whole system into daily used
electronics, for example smartphones. The improvements of self-
powered systems, which combine enhanced energy harvester [17–42]
and wireless transmission technology [43–45], provide a potential
solution for wearable smart electronics to get rid of the bondages of
bulky batteries as well as the restrictions of inconvenient wires.
Concretely, triboelectric generators are able to drive the self-powered
system with highly continuous and low cost energy sources; wireless
transmission technology contributes to breaking of limits of charging
cables.
Among all those efforts to establish self-powered wireless transmis-
sion systems, rectifier circuits and capacitors are frequently utilized to
convert the outputs of TENGs, which is usually in the form of short
pulse at variable frequency, into direct current and store it before it can
be harnessed to drive conventional electronics. In addition, RF
emitters, in most cases, are induced to transmit the signal and power
to the receivers. The efficiency of these approaches are relatively low
due to the complicated additional circuits which have low conversion
and transmission efficiency as well as high cost. In addition, they are
inconvenient to carry as wearable devices. Here, by means of the
electrostatic induction effect, we present that the power as well as
signal can be received wirelessly from the TENG without other devices
and circuits, which aims to make them feasible for wireless transmis-
sion and wearable applications.
Herein, we present a self-powered wireless smart patch for mon-
itoring the physiological status, including temperature and motion
status. Our system is based on the triboelectric effect and electrostatic
induction to realize self-powered wireless transmission which utilizes
electric field built by spontaneous friction charges as the propagation
medium of power and signal as is shown in Fig. 1a. Multi-walled

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: zhang-alice@pku.edu.cn (H. Zhang).
1
Authors contributed equally to this work.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.01.008
Received 27 November 2016; Received in revised form 3 January 2017; Accepted 4 January 2017
Available online 05 January 2017
2211-2855/ © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Shi et al.
Fig. 1. Structure of self-powered wireless smart patch. (a) Schematic diagram of a self-powered wireless smart patch. (b) Photograph of the stretchable conductive fabric after coating
PDMS. (c), (d) Transparent and stretchable Ag NW/PDMS electrode pasted on the screen of a smart phone.
carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is
composited with commercial knitted cotton fabric to fabricate a
wearable stretchable electrode with high stability. (Fig. 1b) Moreover,
the sandwich structured film receiver, which is transparent and
stretchable, is fabricated by silver nanowires (Ag NWs) and PDMS. It
is compatible with a variety of surfaces on which it can pasted based on
van der Waals interactions alone in order to receive the power and
signal wirelessly transmitted by the triboelectric generator (Fig. 1c and
d).
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Processing of CNT based electrically conductive cotton fabric
In processing, commercial knitted fabric was coated with MWCNTs
through dipping and drying process. To enhance the stability, the
conductive fabric was then coated with PDMS. First of all, 1 mg/ml of
commercial carbon nanotube powder was dissolved into the deionized
water, then 10 mg/ml of SDBS was added. Afterwards, the solution was
placed into an ultrasonic treating device for 1 h. After preparation of
MWCNT solution, a knitting cotton fabric was immersed into the
carbon nanotube solution and was exposed to an ultrasonic environ-
ment for 5 min, as is shown in Fig. S1a. Then the cloth was picked up
from the solution and placed on the hot plate for 15 min. The two steps
mentioned above was repeated for 10 times. In the final cycle, the cloth
should be heated until it was dried.
Elastomer and the cross-linker (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning) were
prepared in the ratio of 10:1 (w/w). The cotton fabric was then
immersed into liquid PDMS. After a few seconds, the fabric was taken
out from the liquid PDMS and placed onto the hot plate to solidify the
PDMS layer. Then the electrically conductive fabric was ready.
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Nano Energy 32 (2017) 479–487
2.2. Characterization of CNT based electrically conductive cotton
fabric
Fig. S1b–d show the SEM image of PDMS coated conductive fabric.
In the top view shown in Fig. S1b, surface with high roughness was
formed by the PDMS coated fibers. Moreover, Fig. S1c and d shows
that PDMS was filled into the gap of the fiber frame. There are two
main advantages of PDMS coating. The first one is to protect the
MWCNT network on the surface of cotton fibers [11]. Another
advantages of PDMS coating is that PDMS is of high efficiency to catch
electrons from common clothing materials, so that it can enhance the
efficiency of the generator. Because of the stretchability of PDMS, the
fabric remains stretchable after coating.
2.3. Processing of a PDMS covered silver nanowire electrode
Elastomer and the cross-linker (Sylgard 184, Dow Corning) were
prepared in the ratio of 10:1 (w/w). First, liquid PDMS was dropped on
a glass substrate and was spin-coated at 500 rpm for 60 s. The sample
was then placed on the hot plate at 100 °C for 20 min until the PDMS
was solidified. Afterwards, the PDMS layer was detached from the glass
substrate and pre-strained. Then it was treated with oxygen plasma to
form a hydrophilic surface. 2 mg/ml of silver nanowire solution was
dropped onto the pre-strained PDMS film and spin-coated at 1000 rpm
for 30 s. This step was repeated for 10 times. After that the strain in
PDMS film was released. The sample was then placed on the hot plate
at 100 °C for 30 min to anneal. Finally, liquid PDMS was dropped onto
the AgNW layer and spin-coated at 400 rpm for 30 s. After the sample
was placed on the hot plate at 100 °C for 20 min to solidify, a PDMS
covered silver nanowire electrode was ready.
M. Shi et al. Nano Energy 32 (2017) 479–487

Fig. 2. Working principle of self-powered wireless transmission system. (a)–(d) Charge distributions and currents in different working stages. (e) Structure and critical parameters of
self-powered wireless transmission system. (f) Equivalent circuit of self-powered wireless transmission system. (g) Time-domain SPICE simulation results with circuit diagram in (f). (e)
Equivalent circuit model of analogue smart skins. (h) The frequency domain calculation results show the influence of Cd. (i) Voltage distribution with different distance between
generator and receiver.

2.4. Characterization of PDMS covered silver nanowire electrode
The transparent and stretchable Ag NW based receiver was
fabricated to adapt to various object surfaces, such as smartphones,
laptops and smart bracelets, with high uniformity and conductivity
(~100 Ω/sq). The transmittance has been presented in Fig. S3. The
thickness of this PDMS/Ag NW/PDMS sandwich structural receiver is
200 µm in total. Fig. S2b shows the Ag NWs on the surface of regular
wrinkled PDMS substrate in more detail. The wrinkled PDMS substrate
is prepared with process shown in Fig. S2a, including pre-stretching
and treatment of O2 plasma to enhance the strechability and hydro-
phily. To protect the conductive Ag NW layer, another PDMS layer was
covered on Ag NW layer to form a PDMS/Ag NW/PDMS sandwich
structure, as is shown in Fig. S2c and d. Due to protection of the PDMS

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layer on Ag NW layer, this electrode saw a better stability in contrast to receiver significantly affects the output voltage.
electrodes with bared Ag NW layer. The performance of generator part (the friction layer and conduc-
tive fabric layer) is demonstrated in Fig. 3. The tests were conducted
3. Results and discussion with a vibration system including a signal generator, a power amplifier
and a vibrator. The length of one side of the layers is 4 cm. At the first
The working principle of this self-powered wireless smart patch is place, the voltage and current output was tested with different load
illustrated in Fig. 2. The operating mode begins with one contact resistances. Fig. 3a shows that the voltage output rose and the current
between the friction layer (yellow) and the conductive fabric (dark output fell with the increasing load resistance. With the best matched
gray) (Fig. 2a). The opposite charges occur on the surface of two layers load resistance of 700 MΩ, the power output reached ~60 μW and the
respectively. When the friction layer leaves conductive fabric, the current outputs showed wide and high peaks which means high energy
electrical field between these layers decreases and the negative charges density (Fig. 3b and c). Due to the coating of PDMS on the conductive
on the surface of conductive fabric will induce opposite charges on the fabric, not only the triboelectric performance of conductive fabric
receiver through electrostatic induction. As is shown in Fig. 2b, current increased, but also its stability. We tested the generator part for more
occurs in the external circuit when the electrons are repulsed from the than 170,000 times, and the output voltage kept steady. The testing
receiver to the ground. The charge density on the receiver reaches the environment was shown in Fig. S4.
maximum when the friction layer is at its farthest (Fig. 2c). When the Fig. 4 demonstrates the wireless transmission properties of the
friction layer approaches the conductive fabric again, the electrons flow smart patch. With the generator signal (49.0 V) shown in Fig. 4a, the
back to the receiver and there is an opposite current in the external power output of receiver is presented in Fig. 4b with a load resistance
circuit (Fig. 2d). There are some parameters which affect the transmis- of 100 MΩ. The distance between conductive fabric and receiver
sion properties in the process above, including size of layer (L), max significantly affected the efficiency of wireless transmission. As is
height of friction layer (h), distance between receiver and conductive shown in the Fig. 4c, the voltage of receiver was inversely proportional
fabric (d) and the charge density on layers (σ, σr) (Fig. 2e). to the distance d. With the increasing distance from 1 cm to 7 cm, the
The equivalent circuit is shown in Fig. 2f. The equivalent circuit voltage fell from 13.0V to 1.7 V. Meanwhile, the wireless transmission
model means the relations between the conductive fabric and receiver efficiency followed the same regulation with the received voltage. When
can be replaced by a capacitor Cd which is affected by the gap between d was 1 cm, the efficiency reached 26.6%. When d rose, the efficiency
the fabric and receiver. C0 and R0 means the equivalent capacitor and decreased. For the purpose of demonstrating the ability to drive the
resistor between the friction layer and ground. Through the Kirchhoff's load, the current output under different load and distance conditions is
law and phasor method, Eq. (1) is derived as follow, shown in Fig. 4d. The current output at the same distance kept the
same despite the fact that the load resistance had changed, which
Uṡ = UĊ 0 + UṘ 0 + UCd
̇ + URl̇ (1) behaves like a current source. Concretely, the current output of this
It can be solved as follow, device keeps constant while load resistance varies within a wide range
from 1 Ω to 1 MΩ. It works like a current source with a very big
1 internal resistance so that the load resistance cannot influence the
URl̇ = Uṡ R0 1 1
1+ Rl
+ jωC0Rl
+ jωCdRl (2) current output remarkably and the current keeps the same with
different load resistance. In addition, as was shown before, the distance
Because in common condition, R0 is much smaller than Rl， significantly affected the current output. Furthermore, the influence of
meanwhile C0 is much bigger than Cd, this equation can be simplified frequency was tested. In our experiment, wireless transmission effi-
as ciency kept in the range from 10% to 15% when d is 2 cm. We found
⎛ ⎞ that there were no significant effects on the transmission efficiency
1 ⎜ 1 1 ⎟ when the frequency ranges from 3 Hz to 20 Hz (Fig. 4e). The horizontal
URl̇ ≈ Uṡ = Uṡ ⎜ +j 1 ⎟
1+
1
⎜ 1 + 2 12 2 ωCdRl + ⎟ relative location also has influence on the transmission efficiency
jωCdRl ⎝ ω Cd Rl ωCdRl ⎠ (3) (Fig. 4f). With the decrease of overlapping area, the efficiency fell from
The wireless transmission efficiency is ~14% to ~6%.
This transmission system has the ability to transmit power and
URl̇ 1 1 signal at the same time. Firstly, we applied the smart patch to drive an
≈ +j
Uṡ 1
1+ 2 2 ωCdRl +
1
energy storage and temperature sensing system (Fig. 5a) to demon-
ω Cd Rl2 ωCdRl (4)
strate the ability of collecting and transmitting power. As was shown in
̇ and Uṡ are the phasor forms of URl and Us, while j is the
Here, URl Fig. 5b, When the switch 1 (S1) was on, a capacitor of 1 μF was charge
imaginary unit. In Eq. (4), we can find that the efficiency depends on to 6.4 V in 30 min, when d is 2 cm and vibration frequency is 8 Hz.
the product of Cd, load resistance (Rl) and frequency ω. With this Then the electrical energy in the capacitor was used to drive a
equivalent circuit and integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE), the time- thermistor to monitoring the temperature of a participant.
domain SPICE simulation results are shown in Fig. 2g. The black line We developed a method using the discharge curve of RC circuit to
simulated the movement of friction layer. When the potential of friction detect the resistance of the thermistor. If the discharge rate is slower,
layer changes, the receiver would have periodic output. Fig. 2h shows thus the time constant (τ) is larger, and the resistance is higher.
the frequency domain calculation results which indicate the influence Utilizing the small commercial thermistor and its resistance-tempera-
of frequency and Cd. As shown in the Fig. 2h, the efficiency rises with ture curve which can be converted to temperature-time constant curve
the increasing frequency and increasing Cd. It means if the generator (τ is the product of resistance and capacitance in the circuit), the
part vibrates with higher frequency, or the size of receiver is larger, or temperature can be calculated. In our tests, when S1 is off and S2 is on,
the distance between the receiver and the generator is smaller, the the temperatures of room, neck and under the arm are detected and
transmission efficiency will rise. It indicates the potential approach to presented in Fig. 5c–e. First of all, the discharge curve was measured to
improve the wireless transmission efficiency of smart patch. Voltage determine the time constant. After the three time constants at different
distribution with different distance is calculated with finite element positions are measured, temperature-time constant curve is used to
simulation. Intuitively, the distribution shows that the distance to the calculate the temperature as is shown in Fig. 5e. Presenting high

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Fig. 3. Measurement of the generator part of smart patch. (a) Voltage output and current output properties with different load resistance. (b) Power output of generator part shows the
best matched resistance is 700 MΩ. (c) Current output in single cycle. (d) The stability of wearable generator after 170,000 cycles.

Fig. 4. Performance of the self-powered wireless transmission system. (a) Power generated from the single electrode TENG. (b) Received power of the Ag NW electrode (receiver) with
different distance. (c) Wireless transmission efficiency with different distance. (d)The output current of receiver with different load resistance. (e) (f) Wireless transmission efficiency
with different (e) vibration frequency and (f) horizontal location.

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Fig. 5. Wireless energy transmission ability of smart patch and its application on temperature detection. (a) Circuit diagram of energy storage and sensing system. (b) With self-powered
wireless transmission system, 1 μF capacitor was charged to 6.4 V within 30 min (c), (d) Discharge curve of RC circuit in different temperature. (d) shows the partial magnification of (c)
in the dashed frame. (e) Based on the time constants of discharge curves, the temperature can be detected.

Fig. 6. Use of smart patch to detect human motion state. (a) Diagram of smart patch on a participant. In tests, the motion states were monitored when the participant was grounded and
ungrounded, respectively. (b) Signals from the receiver when the participant was walking, running, sitting down on a chair and stand up from it. (c) Properties of signals when
participant was walking and running, including peak voltage, FWHM and frequency. (d) Signals from the receiver when the participant was ungrounded. (e) Average peak voltages of
walking and running with different conditions. (f) The voltage output of receiver when the participant fell down. (g) Demonstration of real-time motion status monitoring with an
interactive interface.

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accuracy, we detected that the room, neck, under arm temperature is
25.2 °C, 35 °C, 36.3 °C, respectively.
Furthermore, we applied the self-powered wireless smart patch to
detect the motion status of people. As the performance and signal of
the generator part of the smart patch was essentially influenced by the
motion status of users, the received signals included the information of
motion status. There are opportunities to extract information and the
smart patch can directly be used as motion status monitor without any
other sensors.
As is shown in Fig. 6a, the conductive fabric was fixed on the inner
surface of the participant's coat and the Ag NW receiver was pasted on
the mobile phone which is placed in the pocket of the coat. The
participant worn a T-shirt in the coat as is shown in Fig. 1a. There was
no extra line between conductive fabric and receiver. Fig. 6b shows
signals of the receiver when the participant was in different motion
status, including walking, slow running, sitting down and standing up.
The curves in Fig. 6b was captured when the human body was
connected with the ground to shield the influence of other charges on
the other part of body. In this figure, there are significant differences
between the signals in different motion status, especially the movement
frequency. The more detailed information is shown in Fig. 6c. We
analyzed the signals captured in running and walking status for 10 s.
Peak voltages and FWHM (full width at half maximum) was similar in
walking status and slow running status. This may be due to the motion
between coat and T-shirt is of the same property, such as motion
amplitude. However, frequency showed notable difference because the
motion period is shorter in running status than walking status. The
remarkable difference of frequency can be utilized to differentiate
motion statuses as is demonstrated later. To illustrate the influence of
charges of other parts of body, Fig. 6d shows the ungrounded curves,
while Fig. 6e shows the comparison of two conditions. Compared with
the grounded curves, these curves have higher peak voltage in all
statuses due to the contribution of charges from other parts of human
body. It is worth noting that although the voltage was larger, the shape
of waveforms is similar with them in the grounded condition. It means
the motion of whole body have the similar properties with local motion
around smart patch, and it can be used to monitor motion status
without connecting body to ground. Therefore, the smart patch can be
used without body connecting to ground, and as indicated earlier, the
ungrounded signals are more significant than the grounded ones.
Furthermore, as is shown in Fig. 6f, our smart patch was utilized to
detect the slow falling down of the participant which is particularly
critical for the healthcare of the elderly persons. Because of the vast
displacement of motion, the signal is clear and remarkable.
Real-time monitoring programs is developed to identify the motion
status by calculating some important parameters from the real-time
waveform with high signal-noise-ratio acquired from the receiver. By
measuring the average peak voltage, the average FWHM and fre-
quency, especially the frequency, and comparing them with experien-
tial threshold values, we can distinguish basic motion status such as
walking, running, sitting down, standing up and falling. Fig. 6g showed
our demonstration of real-time motion monitoring with a program. The
testing environment was presented in Fig. S5. The average capturing
time of waveform is 1 s. Parameters were calculated and motion status
was determined immediately. It should be noticed that further
improvement can be achieved by thorough analysis of data and capture
of more stable and clearer signals. Other novel functions from the
smart patch can be hopefully developed.
4. Conclusions
In conclusion, we demonstrated a smart patch which combines self-
powered technology with wireless transmission technology in order to
realize a self-powered wireless transmission system for monitoring the
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Nano Energy 32 (2017) 479–487
body temperature and motion status. The wireless transmission
efficiency achieves 26.6% while the distance is 1 cm. And with different
load resistances lower than 1 MΩ, the current keeps constant, which
behaves like a current source. Stable processes of fabric electrode and
Ag NW electrode are developed to realize the practical system. These
processes possess the potential to become scalable, since they are low
cost and easy to repeat. Moreover, the functions of this self-powered
wireless transmission system can be largely extended in the future,
such as driving more extensive types of sensors, and the signal received
can be analyzed independently and more elaborately. Owing to the
close and delicate relations between human motion status and wear-
able triboelectric signals, the latter is possibly analyzed to judge the
intensity as well as characteristic of the former. The self-powered
wireless transmission technology shows great potential in the vast
fields of continuous health monitoring, wearable consumer electronics
and artificial intelligence.
Author contributions
The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors.
All authors have discussed the results and given approval to the final
version of the manuscript.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
Acknowledgment
This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant nos. 61674004 and 91323304), National Key Research and
Development Program of China (2016YFA0202701), and the Beijing
Science & Technology Project (Grant no. D151100003315003) and the
Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 4141002).
Appendix A. Supplementary material
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the
online version at doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.01.008.
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of Science and Technology on Micro/Nano Fabrication,
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M. Shi et al.
Bo Meng received his B.S. degree in Electronic Science &
Technology from Huazhong University of Science and
Technology, China in 2011and his Ph.D. degree from
Peking University, China in 2016. He majors in MEMS
and his research interests are energy harvester and SiC
MEMS.
global event for 10 years. In 2006, she received the National Invention Award of
Science and Technology.
487
Nano Energy 32 (2017) 479–487
Haixia (Alice) Zhang (SM’10) received the Ph.D. degree
in Mechanical Engineering from Huazhong University of
Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, 1998. She is
currently a Professor with the Institute of
Microelectronics, Peking University, Beijing, China. She
joined the faculty of the Institute of Microelectronics in
2001 after her post-doctoral position with Tsinghua
University. Her research interests include MEMS design
and fabrication technology, SiC MEMS, and micro energy
technology. She has served on the General Chair of the
IEEE NEMS 2013 Conference, and the Organizing Chair of
Transducers’11. At 2007, she founded iCAN contest
(International Contest of Innovation) and charing this