Tag Archives: polymer

Continuous, Accurate, Real-Time Glucose Monitoring System

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Summary:

According to the American Diabetes Association, there are an estimated 21 million children and adults in the United States, or 7% of the population, who have diabetes, as well as 54 million more (18% of the population) with pre-diabetes. If present trends continue, 1 in 3 Americans, and 1 in 2 minorities, born in 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. The total US annual economic cost of diabetes in the year 2002 alone was estimated to be $132 billion, and is only expected to increase along with the number of patients. The process of keeping diabetes a manageable chronic condition and averting serious complications requires constant vigilance on the part of the patient. Thus, there remains a need for a less invasive, continuous monitoring system that can display and record glucose levels in real-time, provide visual and/or audible alarms during hyper- or hypoglycemic events, and work as part of a feedback loop along with an insulin pump. Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a biodegradable, polymer-based bio-sensing film that, when inserted just under the skin and in conjunction with a watch-like device worn over the inserted film, provides continuous, accurate, real-time glucose monitoring.

Potential Applications:

  • Diabetic bio-sensing (21 million US diabetic patients with 54 million US pre-diabetic patients)
  • Non-diabetic bio-sensing where an enzyme is present such as uric acid (lab tested), vitamin C (lab tested) and cholesterol (not yet tested) as well as other possible metabolic disorders

Advantages:

  • Continuous, accurate, real-time glucose level feedback for the user
  • Real-time monitoring ensures proper user care during critical hyper- or hypoglycemic events
  • Continuous monitoring ensures user compliance
  • Elimination of countless finger pricks each day due to thin biodegradable polymer film inserted by the user once a month
  • Optical sensor in watch-like device worn over film eliminates conductive wires found with conventional electrical sensor

Room-Temperature NDR Polymer Diodes for Flexible, Low-Power Electronics

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Summary:

Devices that exhibit a phenomenon known as negative differential resistance (NDR) have tremendous potential to deliver the kind of low-power circuitry needed in a variety of electronics applications. To understand NDR, it is instructive to recall Ohm’s Law, V=IR. For a fixed resistance (R), as voltage (V) increases, current (I) increases in a linear fashion. In NDR, there is a voltage range where increasing voltage actually results in a decreasing current. This behavior has many beneficial design properties, one of which is the design of low power memory and logic or even energy scavenging from the environment, eliminating the need for a self-contained battery.

Until now, successful demonstrations of NDR have been limited to rigid, inflexible semiconductor-based devices that are unsuitable for certain applications. Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a polymer-based device that exhibits NDR and has the flexibility needed for advanced applications such as smartcards and wearable electronics. These devices enjoy very fast operation, which leads to high performance while consuming very little power. Furthermore, these devices can be manufactured in a very cost-effective manner using simple printing techniques.

Potential Applications:

  • Smartcards
  • Energy Scavenging
  • Development of advanced logic and memory circuits on flexible substrates

Advantages:

  • Large and reproducible NDR, at room temperature, in a flexible polymer device!
  • Low cost and simple solution processing
  • Fast operation at low power

Novel Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Technologies for Lighting and Display Applications

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Summary:

Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a comprehensive portfolio of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technologies that include novel materials and device architectures as platforms for functional devices and for device manufacturing. These developments improve material stability over time while improving their performance such that the required voltage can be reduced and improved electroluminescence can be obtained with reduced power consumption. The bilayer device structure improves device quantum efficiency and brightness due to charge confinement and exciplex emission at the emitting polymer interface. Beyond advancements in the materials themselves, novel device architectures have been developed which are independent of the materials used. These advancements may be of significant value in simplifying manufacturing, thereby accelerating the displacement of LCD and plasma display technologies as well as the displacement of traditional incandescent and fluorescent lighting sources. The associated patent portfolio consists of 8 patent families with a total of 11 issued U.S. patents and 39 associated national stage filings (spanning all US cases). A listing of all issued U.S. patents can be found below.

Potential Applications:

  • Conformal, designable, and color-variable interior and exterior lighting for residential and commercial environments
  • Power and weight sensitive lighting and display applications (e.g. aircraft interior lighting, portable display backlighting)
  • Portable lighting devices such as flashlights
  • Light, ultra-thin, flexible displays with rich colors viewable from very wide angles
  • Body-wearable lighting and display applications
  • Nearly endless list of potential applications

Advantages:

  • More energy efficient lighting source compared to incandescent and fluorescent approaches
  • Color quality matches or surpasses conventional approaches in lighting and display applications
  • Estimated useful life is approximately 17-25 times longer than incandescent lighting and nearly twice as long as linear flourescent lighting (which is commonly used in modern LCD displays)
  • Polymeric material is conformal to a wide range of surface topologies and allows for ultra-thin, flexible displays
  • Low cost, materials-independent architectures have the potential to lower manufacturing costs
  • Adjustable color spectrum

Micro-Devices for Drug Delivery

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Summary:

Micrometer-sized polymeric particles such as spheres, beads, and capsules are widely used for drug delivery, biological analysis, and clinical diagnosis. However, their applications are significantly limited by their spherical shape and the simple structures of the micro-particles produced by conventional methods. Researchers at The Ohio State University have invented a method that can produce polymeric micro-particles with novel three-dimensional structures through self-folding of thin-film micro-particles. This invention applies to different polymers and self-folding mechanisms, and can be used to create novel medical micro-devices.

Potential Applications:

  • Drug delivery
  • Biological analysis
  • Clinical diagnosis

Advantages:

  • Better controlled targeting
  • High drug loading capacity
  • High uniformity of structure size and shape, and
  • Better controlled drug release
  • Broader range of bio-compatible materials