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Editors for Western Europe Meijer, Gerard C.M., Delft Univ. of Technology, The Netherlands Ferrari, Vittorio, Universitá di Brescia, Italy Editor for Eastern Europe Sachenko, Anatoly, Ternopil National Economic University, Ukraine Editors for North America Katz, Evgeny, Clarkson University, USA Datskos, Panos G., Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA Fabien, J. Josse, Marquette University, USA

Editor South America Costa-Felix, Rodrigo, Inmetro, Brazil Editor for Asia Ohyama, Shinji, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Zhengbing, Hu, Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technol., China Editor for Asia-Pacific Mukhopadhyay, Subhas, Massey University, New Zealand Editor for Africa Maki K.Habib, American University in Cairo, Egypt

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Abdul Rahim, Ruzairi, Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia Abramchuk, George, Measur. Tech. & Advanced Applications, Canada Ascoli, Giorgio, George Mason University, USA Atalay, Selcuk, Inonu University, Turkey Atghiaee, Ahmad, University of Tehran, Iran Ayesh, Aladdin, De Montfort University, UK Baliga, Shankar, B., General Monitors, USA Basu, Sukumar, Jadavpur University, India Bouvet, Marcel, University of Burgundy, France Campanella, Luigi, University La Sapienza, Italy Carvalho, Vitor, Minho University, Portugal Changhai, Ru, Harbin Engineering University, China Chen, Wei, Hefei University of Technology, China Cheng-Ta, Chiang, National Chia-Yi University, Taiwan Chung, Wen-Yaw, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taiwan Cortes, Camilo A., Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Colombia D'Amico, Arnaldo, Università di Tor Vergata, Italy De Stefano, Luca, Institute for Microelectronics and Microsystem, Italy Ding, Jianning, Changzhou University, China Djordjevich, Alexandar, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Donato, Nicola, University of Messina, Italy Dong, Feng, Tianjin University, China Erkmen, Aydan M., Middle East Technical University, Turkey Gaura, Elena, Coventry University, UK Gole, James, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Gong, Hao, National University of Singapore, Singapore Gonzalez de la Rosa, Juan Jose, University of Cadiz, Spain Guillet, Bruno, University of Caen, France Hadjiloucas, Sillas, The University of Reading, UK Hui, David, University of New Orleans, USA Jaffrezic-Renault, Nicole, Ecole Centrale de Lyon, France Jamil, Mohammad, Qatar University, Qatar Kaniusas, Eugenijus, Vienna University of Technology, Austria Kim, Min Young, Kyungpook National University, Korea Kumar, Arun, University of Delaware, USA Lay-Ekuakille, Aime, University of Lecce, Italy Lin, Paul, Cleveland State University, USA Liu, Aihua, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Mansor, Muhammad Naufal, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia Marquez, Alfredo, Centro de Investigacion en Materiales Avanzados, Mexico Mishra, Vivekanand, National Institute of Technology, India Moghavvemi, Mahmoud, University of Malaya, Malaysia Morello, Rosario, University "Mediterranea" of Reggio Calabria, Italy Mulla, Imtiaz Sirajuddin, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India Nabok, Aleksey, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Neshkova, Milka, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria Passaro, Vittorio M. N., Politecnico di Bari, Italy Penza, Michele, ENEA, Italy Pereira, Jose Miguel, Instituto Politecnico de Setebal, Portugal Pogacnik, Lea, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Pullini, Daniele, Centro Ricerche FIAT, Italy Reig, Candid, University of Valencia, Spain Restivo, Maria Teresa, University of Porto, Portugal Rodríguez Martínez, Angel, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Spain Sadana, Ajit, University of Mississippi, USA Sadeghian Marnani, Hamed, TU Delft, The Netherlands Sapozhnikova, Ksenia, D. I. Mendeleyev Institute for Metrology, Russia Singhal, Subodh Kumar, National Physical Laboratory, India Shah, Kriyang, La Trobe University, Australia Shi, Wendian, California Institute of Technology, USA Shmaliy, Yuriy, Guanajuato University, Mexico Song, Xu, An Yang Normal University, China Srivastava, Arvind K., LightField, Corp, USA Stefanescu, Dan Mihai, Romanian Measurement Society, Romania Sumriddetchkajorn, Sarun, Nat. Electr. & Comp. Tech. Center, Thailand Sun, Zhiqiang, Central South University, China Sysoev, Victor, Saratov State Technical University, Russia Thirunavukkarasu, I., Manipal University Karnataka, India Vazquez, Carmen, Universidad Carlos III Madrid, Spain Xue, Ning, Agiltron, Inc., USA Yang, Dongfang, National Research Council, Canada Yang, Shuang-Hua, Loughborough University, UK Yaping Dan, Harvard University, USA Zakaria, Zulkarnay, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia Zhang, Weiping, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China Zhang, Wenming, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China

Sensors & Transducers Journal (ISSN 1726-5479) is a peer review international journal published monthly online by International Frequency Sensor Association (IFSA). Available in both: print and electronic (printable pdf) formats. Copyright © 2013 by International Frequency Sensor Association.

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Research Articles

Editorial Sergey Y. Yurish ......................................................................................................................... I 10 Top Reasons to Include SENSORDEVICES Conference in your Calendar of Events Sergey Y. Yurish ......................................................................................................................... 1 From Sensors to Applications: A Proposal to Fill the Gap Vincenzo Di Lecce, Marco Calabrese, Claudio Martines............................................................ 5 Smart Sensors and Actuators: A Question of Discipline Hoel Iris, François Pacull ............................................................................................................ 14 Atmospheric Icing Sensors - Capacitive Techniques Umair N. Mughal, Muhammad S. Virk ........................................................................................ 24 Design of a Sigma-Delta Interface for Heat Balanced Bolometer Matthieu Denoual, Damien Brouard, Arthur Veith, Mathieu Pouliquen, Olivier de Sagazan, Patrick Attia, Gilles Allegre.......................................................................................................... 33 Implementation of a Shoe-Embedded Human Interface and Collaborative Supplementation of Service Requirements on Smartphone System Kaname Takaochi, Kazuhiro Watanabe, Kazumasa Takami ..................................................... 47 Module with Piezoelectric Sensor for Acoustic Emission Applications Irinela Chilibon, Marian Mogildea, George Mogildea.................................................................. 59 Performance Improvement of High Frequency Aluminum Nitride Ultrasonic Transducers Yangjie Wei, Thomas Herzog and Henning Heuer..................................................................... 66 Development of Specialty Optical Fiber Incorporated with Au Nano-particles in Cladding for Surface Plasmon Resonance Sensors Seongmin Ju, Seongmook Jeong, Youngwoong Kim, Poram Jeon, Won-Taek Han, Seongjae Boo, Pramod R. Watekar............................................................................................ 76 Selective Detection of Hydrogen with Surface Acoustic Wave Devices Using Palladium Layer Properties Meddy Vanotti, Virginie Blondeau-Patissier, David Rabus, Jean-Yves Rauch, Sylvain Ballandras ................................................................................................................................... 84 High Performance Sensor Nodes for Wireless Sensor Networks Applications Sergey Y. Yurish and Javier Cañete........................................................................................... 92 Intelligent Parking Management System Based on Wireless Sensor Network Technology Nikos Larisis, Leonidas Perlepes, George Stamoulis, Panayiotis Kikiras .................................. 100

Wireless Underwater Monitoring Systems Based on Energy Harvestings Sea-Hee Hwangbo, Jun-Ho Jeon and Sung-Joon Park ............................................................. 113 Assessing the Impact of Wind on Detecting Fire Using a Wireless Sensor Network Ronald Beaubrun and Yacine Kraimia........................................................................................ 120 All Organic Flexible Lightweight BL-Film Sensor Systems with Wireless Data Transmission Raphael Pfattner, Victor Lebedev, Bahareh Moradi, Elena Laukhina, Vladimir Laukhin, Concepció Rovira, Jaume Veciana............................................................................................. 128 A Medical Wireless Measurement System for Hip Prosthesis Loosening Detection Based on Vibration Analysis Sebastian Sauer, Sabine Kirsten, Florian Storck, Hagen Grätz, Uwe Marschner, Dietmar Ruwisch and Wolf-Joachim Fischer............................................................................................ 134 Wireless Sensor Network Simulation: The Current State and Simulation Tools Fayez Al-Fayez, Abdelrahman Abuarqoub, Mohammad Hammoudeh, Andrew Nisbet ............ 145 Low Power Consumption Wireless Sensor Communication System Integrated with an Energy Harvesting Power Source Vlad Marsic, Alessandro Giuliano and Meiling Zhu .................................................................... 156 Power Saving Algorithm for Monitoring Extreme Values in Sensor Networks Pei-Hsuan Tsai, Chun-Lung Lin, Jau-Wu Huang, Jia-Shung Wang........................................... 166 Faults in Sensory Readings: Classification and Model Learning Valentina Baljak, Tei Kenji, Shinichi Honiden ............................................................................. 177 On QoS Guarantees of Error Control Schemes for Data Dissemination in a Chain-based Wireless Sensor Networks Zahra Taghikhaki, Nirvana Meratnia, Paul J. M. Havinga .......................................................... 188

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All Organic Flexible Lightweight BL-Film Sensor Systems with Wireless Data Transmission

1, 3 Raphael Pfattner, 1, 3 Victor Lebedev, 1 Bahareh Moradi,

1, 3,* Elena Laukhina, 1, 2, 3 Vladimir Laukhin, 1, 3 Concepció Rovira, 1, 3 Jaume Veciana

1 Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona ICMAB -CSIC and CIBER de Bioingeniería

2 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain 3 Biomateriales y Nanomedicina (CIBER-BBN), Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain

*E-mail: laukhina@icmab.es

Received: 7 December 2012 /Accepted: 14 December 2012 /Published: 22 January 2013 Abstract: This article is addressed to the development of flexible lightweight physical sensors suitable for body sensing technology. The polycarbonate films were covered with different organic molecular conductors to fabricate flexible strain sensing materials. The resulting surface-modified films were fully characterized by different microscopic and spectroscopic techniques and their electric transport and electromechanical properties were studied as well. The investigations demonstrated that the electrical responses of these films suffice to measure very small pressure or temperature changes. A series of proof of concept prototypes of strain sensors were designed and a portable system including wireless data transmission was developed. Copyright © 2013 IFSA. Keywords: Flexible strain sensor, Deformation sensing materials, Organic molecular conductors, Electrical detection principle; Wireless data transmission.

1. Introduction

The application of flexible lightweight sensors in electronics is a key point in the development of novel high-tech [1-4]. Engineering flexible all-organic sensing materials with electrical detection principle brings great opportunities in the field of physical sensors for their applications in intelligent textiles, robotic interfaces and body sensing devices [1-3]. A simple covering process of polymeric films with highly strain sensitive, piezoresistive networks of micro- or nano-crystals of BEDT-TTF-based

molecular conductors has been developed previously; BEDT-TTF = bis (ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene, Fig. 1 [4, 5].

Fig. 1. Skeletal formula of BEDT-TTF.

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We have shown that these bi-layer (BL) films may have a great interest in sensor engineering due to important material properties, such as electrical conductivity, high strain (pressure) sensitivity, excellent elasticity, weightless and biocompatibility [6]. Since the ultimate goal of our studies is to use the developed BL films in human body sensing technology the biocompatibility of the BL film has been tested. Haematoxylin-Eosin staining of the tissues adjacent to the sensing BL film and to the silicon band showed the less inflammatory reaction to BL film samples compared with the reaction to a silicone band [6]. The developed sensing BL films have therefore a higher biocompatibility than standard silicone-based materials often used in surgery.

The processing characteristics of polycarbonate films, covered with the layer of a BEDT-TTF–based organic molecular conductor, make them potentially useful for electronic applications where conductivity, lightweight, large or small area coverage and flexibility are required [4]. Recently, we have reported on the integration of polycarbonate films metalized with the highly strain sensitive β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 metal in a polyester textile, demonstrating that the strain sensing properties of this unique organic molecular metal can be completely transferred on the fabric [7]. This result prompted us to further develop a sensing material that also uses the electrical detection principle. Noteworthy is that the BL film-based sensors have to be equipped for some particular applications especially in biomedicine with some electronic circuit to measure, amplify and transmit the deformation data where hard wired sensors can not be used.

Here, we present flexible, lightweight sensing BL films whose electrical resistance significantly responses to deformation (piezoresistive) changes depending on the type of molecular conductor used for covering the polycarbonate film. This article also demonstrated a first system that can measure strain and the possibility to transmit the measured data to a data acquisition (DAQ) system. Portable prototypes of strain sensors with wireless data transmission were developed and are presented as well.

2. Fabricating Flexible Strain Sensing

Film with Electrical Detection Principle In line with the early reported method, [8, 9] we

first prepared a 25 μm thick polycarbonate (PC) film that contains 2 wt. % of BEDT-TTF, a precursor for various organic molecular metals or semiconductors. The films were cast on glass support at 130 oC from a 1,2-dichlorobenzene solution of PC and BEDT-TTF. In order to cover the film with the layer of a BEDT-TTF-based conductor we exposed the film surface to vapors of a solution of either iodine or IBr in dichloromethane. The surface of a polycarbonate film easily swells under its exposure to dichloromethane

vapors; this swelling facilitates a migration of BEDT-TTF molecules from the film bulk to the swollen film surface where the part of donor molecules are oxidized to radical cations by halogen, which penetrates in the film surface together with dichloromethane vapors. This redox process induces the rapid nucleation of the highly insoluble (BEDT-TTF)+•(halogen)n

- conductor and a topmost layer of an organic molecular conductor is formed. It should be stressed that the treatment of the film surface with iodine/dichloromethane vapors resulted in the formation of the covering layer of the α- phase of (BEDT-TTF)2I3; whose gauge factor (GF) is equal to 10 [4]. On the other hand, we have shown that PC films covered with the layer of the beta-phase of (BEDT-TTF)2I3 exhibits a GF being equal to 20 [4]. Taking into account that the highly piezoresistive layer of β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 may be formed via a thermally-activated α→β phase transition that occurs at T>100 oC [9], the BL film with the layer of α-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 was annealed at 150oC for 30 min. The formation of both the covering layers based on either the strain sensing β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 metal or α´-(BEDT-TTF)2IxBr3-x semiconductor was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction patterns. Preliminary results of the α´-(BEDT-TTF)2IxBr3-x exhibit a GF of about 8. Referring to Fig. 2 (top) and 3 (top), both patterns demonstrate only 00l reflections that are characteristic of conducting layers formed by oriented crystals: the c* axis of the crystals is perpendicular to the film surface and their molecular ab conducting layers are parallel to it. The surface analysis on a micro scale, performed using a “Quanta FEI 200 FEG-ESEM” scanning electron microscope (SEM), showed that the crystallites of both types of sensitive covering layers are of submicro sizes (Fig. 2 bottom and Fig. 3 bottom).

2. Electronic and Electro-mechanic Measurements - Prototypes With the aim to study the possibility to apply the

highly sensitive BL films as physical sensors, different sensor prototypes have been developed and published previously [4, 6, 10].

2.1. Portable Prototype Capable of Monitoring Deformation induced Resistance Change Displayed in a LED Array

A new sensor prototype capable of measuring deformations of the BL-film manifested in either compression or expansion of the crystalline network has been developed. For this purpose, a BL-film covered with β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3, was glued on top of a 30 μm thick steel foil (see Fig. 4 bottom, right). An electronic circuit which includes a Wheatstone bridge, operational amplifiers and two transistor

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driven “staircase” light emitting diode (LED) schemes to monitor the deformation is also shown in Fig. 4. Upon expansion of the BL-Film or upon compression the corresponding LEDs turn on sequentially.

Fig. 2. X–ray powder diffractogram (top) and SEM image of the piezoresistive covering layer of β-(BEDT-TTF)2I3

(bottom).

Fig. 3. X–ray powder difractogram (top) and SEM image (bottom) of the covering layer of α´-(BEDT-TTF)2IxBr3-x.

Fig. 4. Demonstration proof of concept prototype to monitor the compression and expansion of BL-Film based sensor glued on a thin (30 m) steel foil. Electronic scheme (top) and finished prototype box developed at NANOMOL Department (ICMAB-CSIC) with a bigger view of the sensor element (right).

2.2. Development of Prototypes based on Piezoresistive BL-films with Wireless Data Transmission

Our sensor prototypes developed up to now

exhibited high sensitivity and reproducibility in the strain measurements; however the sensing unit was connected with an electrical cable hard wired to the measurement unit which was further connected to a computer. In many real applications, especially in monitoring vital functions of the human body or human health care, sensors connected with the data acquisition (DAQ) system using wires presents an important limitation. A striking improvement in this regard is the development of a small measurement unit connected to the sensor element which than transmits the measured data set wirelessly to a DAQ system or a computer.

A simple variant of such an electronic scheme includes a Wheatstone bridge and an operational amplifier [11]. Depending on the chemical nature of the BL-film and the particular application one is interested in, the Wheatstone bridge also allows be used for temperature effect compensation if needed. The analog electrical signal obtained after the amplifier has to be digitalized (A/D converter), encoded and transmitted. Fig. 5 shows a simple block diagram of the complete sensor unit that works for piezoresistive sensors.

On the receiving side of the electrical circuit, the signal has to be decoded and transferred either directly to a DAQ-system (i.e., computer) or back converted to an analog signal (Fig. 6).

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Fig. 5. Schematic block diagram of the BL-film based sensor unit including Wheatstone bridge with amplifier and

transmitter scheme for wireless data transmission.

Fig. 6. Schematic electronic receiver diagram with decoder for either analog output or connected directly to a data

acquisition (DAQ) system (i.e. Computer).

For the construction of a proof of concept device to measure, transmit and receive the variation of the electrical resistance induced in the BL-film based sensor a commercial transmitter-receiver unit was purchased at ABACOM Technologies [12]. The transmitter unit (RF-AD-TX) consists of an 8 bit analog to digital converter able to convert a voltage range from 0 to 5 V of up to four independent channels and a corresponding step size of about 20 mV. The transmitter works at a frequency of 433 MHz in a range of more than 30 meters in open space. The receiver unit (RF-AD-RX), on the other hand, consists of an 8 bit digital to analog converter and for corresponding analog outputs. A schematic representation is shown in Fig. 7. The electrical power supply is done with rechargeable batteries.

For a further improvement of the amplification circuit an instrument amplifier [11] was used. This scheme, shown schematically in Fig. 8, includes a

potentiometer (Rgain) which permits to tune the gain of the amplifier. This type of instrument amplifiers can be built with individual operational amplifiers and precision resistors; this was done for this project. The above mentioned operational amplifiers and resistors are also available in integrated circuit form from several manufacturers enhancing the performance and operational stability further. With the improvement of using the above shown instrument amplifier it is possible to adjust the amplification and to meet the full range of the 0 – 5 V of the A/D converter circuit at the input of the transceiver. By employing the corresponding receiver unit obtained by ABACOM Technologies [12] combined with a VM167 input/output USB card, it was possible to transfer the signal to a measurement laptop and monitor the measured data in soft real time. A home written MATLAB program was developed to record and show the measured and wirelessly transmitted data in soft real time on the screen of a measurement laptop. The performance of the designed system was tested by adapting the previously developed electromechanical deformation system [4] and using the Keithley 2400 to measure the potential V1 after the amplification, but before the A/D conversion and transmission. At a measurement laptop the voltage V2 transmitted wirelessly was measured. Fig. 9 (top) shows 8 cycles of linear 20 m deformation induced by the adapted linear parker actuator [4], while Fig. 9 (middle) shows the measured voltage V1 before the A/D conversion and transmission; V2 finally is shown in Fig. 9 (bottom). Despite the use of low-cost components for the development of this devices a clear correlation, with almost no shifts or delay times was observed comparing the two voltage signals V1 and V2, which demonstrates that the measured voltage signal is correctly transmitted by the wireless system. Although the developed system was tested with a piezoresistive sensor element it is straight forward applicable to any sensor which electrical resistance changes under the influence of an external stimulus.

Fig. 7. Commercially available analog to digital transmitter (RF-AD-TX) and digital to analog receiver (RF-AD-RX) used to transmit the measured and amplified signal of the BL-Film based sensor (scheme taken from data sheet, [12]).

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Fig. 8. Improved electronic amplification scheme including Wheatstone bridge and instrument amplifier. The sensor element is shown in the blue circle, Rgain permits to tune the gain of the amplifier, V1 output voltage is connected to the A/D converter of wireless transmitter.

Fig. 9. Performance test of developed measurement system: (top) Monoaxial deformation of 8 cycles of 20 m, (middle) voltage drop V1 measured after amplification, but before A/D conversion and transmission and (bottom) transmitted voltage V2 measured with a data acquisition (DAQ) system.

For a final test, the BL-film mounted on the steel foil, as shown above in Fig. 4, was connected to the instrument amplifier, the A/D converter and the transmitter. The sensor was bent at different radii and the measured electrical voltage (V1) was transmitted. Fig. 10 depicts the measured voltage V2; the inset shows receiver unit and measurement laptop. 6. Conclusions

A low cost and small portable measurement unit powered by batteries connected to the BL film-based sensing elements able to transmit the deformation induced voltage variation to a DAQ system was developed, tested and the performance was shown.

The preliminary data show that the polycarbonate films covered with molecular BEDT-TTF-based conductors show a considerable promise as flexible wireless physical sensors that are able to compete with conventional metal-based strain sensor in biomedical high-tech. It is expected that the developed sensing materials will have a large impact in biomedical applications as well as in human health care.

Fig. 10. Measured variation of voltage V2 (transmitted signal) upon deformation of sensor element glued on the 30 m thick steel foil with the receiver unit shown in the inset. The transmitted voltage V2 was found to be sufficient constant, when the bending radius of the sensor was not changed.

Acknowledgements The research was supported by Instituto Carlos

III, the Networking Research Center on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER-BBN), the MICINN, (Spain) (CTQ2006-06333/BQU), the Generalitat de Catalunya (2009SGR00516), the EU Large Project One-P (FP7-NMP-2007-212311) and the DGI (Spain) with project POMAS CTQ2010-19501/BQU.

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[2]. F. Axisa, P. M. Schmitt, C. Gehin, G. Delhomme, E. McAdams, and A. Dittmar, Flexible technologies and smart clothing for citizen medicine, home healthcare and disease prevention, IEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, Vol. 9, No. 3, 2005, pp. 325-336.

[3]. B. Adhikari, and S. Majumdar, Polymers in sensor applications, Progress in Polymer Science, Vol. 29, 2004, pp. 699-766.

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