Printed & Flexible Sensors & Actuators

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This initial study compared Print Resolution, Adhesion and Electrical Resistance of different PET substrate manufacturers. We looked at how each company applies their surface treatment and how it impacts the aforementioned variables.

Smart Healthcare demands smart medical devices.
Wearable skin patches allow for comprehensive patient monitoring at medical grade accuracy, improving patient care to become more individualized and connected. Printed Electronics technology is a key enabler to smart health patches - allowing the creation of thin, flexible and lightweight sensing components and full solutions that increase the comfort of wear while allowing long-term vital sight monitoring.
Throughout this presentation Henkel Printed Electronics and Accensors will showcase latest printed electronic materials and sensing technologies to shape the next generation of smart health patches.

Current wearable sensor technologies provide limited and less reliable health parameters based mainly on heart rate measurement. Any reliable cardiovascular health assessment requires blood pressure measurements. Many attempts had been made to provide blood pressure measurements using commercially available wearable sensors like in smart watches. However, all attempts failed in measuring blood pressure as required by medical standards. On the other hand, FDA cleared Cardiex\AtCor medical technology became the ‘gold standard’ in measuring non-invasively heart and arterial pressure parameters reflecting cardiac and arterial health.
The challenge is to adapt such medical technology into the wearable sensor devices. This involves examining different and new sensors. It also involve new methods of sensor signals based on cardiovascular physiology to extract clinically significant central arterial pressure parameters. This presentation will review current health wearable technologies, challenges in providing reliable cardiovascular health assessment, and Cardiex current development of medical wearable devices to provide clinical heart and arterial health assessments.

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Ensuring health and wellness is crucial for quality of life and longevity. Join us in a discussion how wearable technology and sensors are being created to monitor and report health throughout the human life cycle. Facilitating the human story of health and wellness from womb to late adulthood.

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Bringing a drug to market is long and difficult. Studies estimate that the clinical trial process lasts 9 years and costs $1.3B on average. Clinical trials are conducted in multiple phases, with cost and complexity increasing from Phase I to Phase III. Despite the time and capital invested in trials, only 1 in 10 drugs that enter Phase I of a clinical trial will be approved by the FDA.
There is Large medical need to evaluate to treat the physical deterioration of physical status. A growing number of patients with mobility impairments lacks accurate tools to diagnose, monitor expensive evolutive diseases and intervene efficiently.

Gait is the simplest and most actionable biomarker to monitor multiple diseases but vastly underutilized as a biomarker or outcome measure because gait analysis is often not high quality when assessed in the clinic.Clinical gait tests, today, are used to identify mobility disorders, measure the efficacy of a therapeutic treatment. This is done in a controlled setting at sites. However, the technologies or design used present strong limitations. Episodic assessments, sometimes observational, don't generate sufficient sensitive data to demonstrate subtle changes.

The FeetMe solution allows the collection of validated gait data at site with the Insoles, and in the same accurate way in the patients daily life allowing continuous recording of gait data.

The automotive industry is changing extremely fast, and there are opportunities that the stretchable electronics brings to address the challenges that the automotive industry is facing today and in the future.

In this presentation, Forciot and Gentherm, will elaborate on how they see stretchable electronics revolutionizing the automotive interior business and solutions by explaining the benefits from the steering wheel Hands on Detection (HOD) solution perspective.

Forciot’s advanced sensor technology can be integrated into vehicle interiors. With Gentherm, Forciot is cooperating on a solution relating to steering wheel HOD functionality for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

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Transition from linear to circular economy is now prevailing in almost every sector including Flexible Hybrid Electronics. Governments and stakeholders are in a continuous endeavour to explore sustainable solutions to support circular economy. Keeping this as utmost importance, General Silicones with its decades of experience, developed a sustainable silicone based novel material as well as circular platform that not only possess excellent chemical and mechanical properties but also removing the drawback of low surface energy of silicone, it can act as innovative sustainable platform to design printed and flexible electronics with unmet possibilities.
Along with high durability, sustainability, bio-compatibility, this wonder material has a range of tuneable properties like color (transparent, translucent, or any), the hardness (25-80 shore A), thickness (customized), tensile strength (30-100 Kgf/cm2), tear strength (10-30 Kgf/cm), and elongation (200-800 %). It can have soft touch and feel, provide different friction levels, and embossments can mimic surface patterns of other materials. Overcoming silicone adhesion, bonding and printing issues, Compo-SiL® offers a sustainable roll to roll industrial solution of printable, flexible, stretchable silicone films for high volume production of wearable, e-skin electronics & HMI automotive applications allowing more functionality and unprecedented freedom in design.

The automotive industry is changing extremely fast, and there are opportunities that the stretchable electronics brings to address the challenges that the automotive industry is facing today and in the future.

In this presentation, Forciot and Gentherm, will elaborate on how they see stretchable electronics revolutionizing the automotive interior business and solutions by explaining the benefits from the steering wheel Hands on Detection (HOD) solution perspective.

Forciot’s advanced sensor technology can be integrated into vehicle interiors. With Gentherm, Forciot is cooperating on a solution relating to steering wheel HOD functionality for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).

Finding and especially keeping the right recipe for your thermal laser process (e.g. for manufacturing of printed RFID antennas or printed circuits) is all about a strong trust in constant material parameters.
The new semiconductor laser T-SMILS® from Hamamatsu Photonics offers the possibility to achieve a highly efficient and reliable laser sintering process for metal nano inks through real-time temperature monitoring and active laser power adjustment.

Smart Healthcare demands smart medical devices.
Wearable skin patches allow for comprehensive patient monitoring at medical grade accuracy, improving patient care to become more individualized and connected. Printed Electronics technology is a key enabler to smart health patches - allowing the creation of thin, flexible and lightweight sensing components and full solutions that increase the comfort of wear while allowing long-term vital sight monitoring.
Throughout this presentation Henkel Printed Electronics and Accensors will showcase latest printed electronic materials and sensing technologies to shape the next generation of smart health patches.

Ensuring health and wellness is crucial for quality of life and longevity. Join us in a discussion how wearable technology and sensors are being created to monitor and report health throughout the human life cycle. Facilitating the human story of health and wellness from womb to late adulthood.

Brain computer interface (BCI) designs have traditionally focused on the use of electrodes located on the scalp of a person to measure their brain activity using Electroencephalography (EEG) brain imaging techniques. Scalp EEG traditionally utilized metal electrodes placed over the scalp with conductive gel between the electrode and the skin to improve electrical contact. Dry contact electrodes were then developed to make the process more user-friendly and to reduce the time to setup EEG systems before conducting experiments. This made EEG more accessible outside of research and medical laboratories and led to the release of BCI products onto the consumer market. Despite the recent advances in invasive BCI’s based on implants, dry electrode EEG offers a greater ability to develop EEG products for daily use. One of the most important product challenges to over-come is the design of BCI’s which fit into existing societal trends. Scalp-focused BCI designs are difficult to scale beyond niche user communities since they represent another device for users to integrate into their lives. Ear EEG offers a way to design BCI products that integrate into users’ lives similar to the way that earbuds have seen wide adoption across different cultures and markets throughout the world.
IDUN Technologies has developed electrodes for biopotential measurements since 2017. The IDUN Guardian Development Kit BCI relies on ear EEG electrodes in an earbud form-factor to facilitate the research of ear EEG for applications from sleep and wellness to acoustic attention. The IDUN ear EEG electrodes are based on a conductive polymer formed into traditional earbud shapes. The combination of electrical conductivity and mechanical deformability allow the electrodes to provide secure contact to the surface of the ear canal resulting in good signal quality for EEG measurements. Performance of the system has been evaluated with electrical impedance as well as EEG paradigm measurements. The mean in-ear skin-contact impedances of the ear electrodes tested in humans at 10 Hz ranged from 11 kΩ to 190 kΩ with a mean of 75 kΩ for cleaned and of 110 kΩ for uncleaned ears. EEG paradigm validation has been conducted included Acoustic Steady State Response (ASSR), Alpha excitation and sleep features includes slow waves and spindles.

Printed electronics is a promising emerging technology for various applications in wearables, medtech, automotive and logistics. However, even though the possibility to print sensors and sensor systems is well know for more than a decade, products based on printed components only slowly find their way into mass market. One main hurdle is a reliable high-volume production and the possibility of a smooth transition from prototyping over upscaling to industrial production.
With its shareholders SAP, BASF and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, InnovationLab is able to bridge this gap and to provide a One-Stop Shop for Printed Electronics while even going beyond hard- and software production by providing AI and IoT services as well. In this talk, the Lab-2-Fab concept is explained and several examples for printed electronic applications will be highlighted.

One of the applications is an automated stock replenishment system based on printed pressure sensor foils. The case study is an IoT solution developed by Trelleborg Sealing Solutions for their customers.

The market share of the e-textile industry has seen an upward trend over the years. Rising awareness and the limitless possibilities to utilize the comfort and flexibility of textiles, combined with the intelligence of electronics has led to tremendous opportunities in the development and manufacture of e-textile and wearable products across various industry segments. The pandemic times have called for and accelerated the need for remote monitoring and opened new vistas of opportunities. With more investment by existing and emerging players in the research and development of such products, it is imperative for businesses to understand and clearly specify the e-textile product requirements. Each product being so unique in nature and function, makes it more critical to address their requirements in a comprehensive manner. This presentation will cover the key aspects to consider while specifying an e-textile product.

The measurement of physiological signals using skin attached sensors have raised a lot of interest in the recent years. The printing of electronics on stretchable patch substrates in combination with low power wireless data transmission allows the continuous recording of medical data in everyday environments and thus represents a significant improvement for patient monitoring compared to medical laboratories or hospitals. A successful realization of such skin patches depends on many factors such as wearing comfort, reliability of the stretchable electronics and sensors, low power consumption as well as sensitivity and selectivity of the applied sensor materials. In this presentation, the possibilities of the printable piezoelectric polymer P(VDF-TrFE) for recording various physiological parameters (respiratory rate, pulse, blood pressure) are presented. I will show that the piezoelectric materials can also be used for energy self-sufficient monitoring thanks to piezoelectric energy harvesting. In addition, the realization of sensors and energy harvesters on ultrathin substrates and the development of a low-cost and reliable stretchable silver ink further improves the wearing comfort and commercial attractiveness of the presented sensor patches.

This talk will illustrate possibilities for the field of e-textiles by warp knitted products.
Already today highly functional products in the fields of active & sportswear, lingerie, outerwear, automotive and agricultural fabrics are based on warp knitted materials.
During this highly productive production process fabrics can be functionalized, therefore warp knitted fabrics will enrich the chances of e-textiles and change the market.
In this presentation you will see different functional systems done by this technology including a coil for inductive charging and a sensor shirt to detect vital parameters.

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Printed stretchable sensors can assist in bringing electronics closer to the body. The sensors are more than just pliable and flexible circuits. They introduce a new dimension to flexibility as the sensors can stretch without losing function and thus can be placed in close proximity to- or directly on the human skin. In a 3-way partnership between Danish incontinence diaper manufacturer ABENA, Silicon Valley based Medisens Wireless, and Mekoprint, the worlds most advanced digital disposable incontinence product has been a made a reality. A disposable product with built-in sensor and a small discrete clip attached. The sensor registers when the product is wet and a notification is send to the caregivers’ smartphones or tablets.

The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it." Mark Weiser's seminal work in Ubiquitous Computing captures a key goal of the smart textile space: to become a part of our everyday clothing (among other objects), thus transforming them into wearables. In this talk, I describe how we are pushing towards our vision for a Future of Wearables, how we are enabling it through the creation of smart fabrics and new sensing techniques that use machine learning, as well as application areas of interest.

Patented ingenuity and science enable Moderncraft by MAS -Firefly illumination intelligence and Phoenix active heating technology to be embedded directly into fabric.

Patented ingenuity and science enable Moderncraft by MAS -Firefly illumination intelligence and Phoenix active heating technology to be embedded directly into fabric.

Firefly is a next-­‐to-­‐skin, washable, visibility solution on the market for any low-­‐light or late-night conditions. The technology has been tested for visibility up to 450 feet.

With a breakthrough in fabric-based heating technology proven to be both durable and flexible - Phoenix is the most advanced active heating technology on the market, giving wearers full control of their personal micro-climate without added, bulky layers.

Both technologies offer not just design freedom to be creative, but also an innovative solution with the ability to manufacture affordably and quickly through a globally integrated supply chain.

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The smart wearables industry has expanded with many companies committed to generating data acquired from external factors (altitude, speed, goniometry) and more recently, internal measurements such as temperature, blood oxygen and the constituents of human sweat. Data is analyzed in accordance with human performance – monitoring the execution of elite sports activities, or assessing normal function for those otherwise restricted, and it’s here that the majority of wearables, reach their functional limits. The ability to affect change within the individual human body, through a smart wearable device, and in response to data generated is not yet a fully commercialized offer.

What if the future of smart wearables is equally focused on affect as well as effect? If the data generated from motion, thermal or heart rate sensors can trigger an instantaneous change within the body? NMES Group began its journey in neuromuscular electrical stimulation, offering a wholly innovative system to deliver electrical current through the skin to produce muscle contractions. The subsequent development of unique stimulation programs for a multitude of sport, fitness, occupational health and medical uses was a natural progression. However, pioneering innovation in stimulation programs has enabled NMES Group to think outside of the box, and revolutionize the technology through enhanced haptics in gaming and military applications – and this is just the beginning. The next phase lies firmly in a closed loop system – the intelligent application of muscle stimulation in response to real-time data generated through smart sensors, providing a platform for multiple diverse industry applications.

The smart wearables industry has expanded with many companies committed to generating data acquired from external factors (altitude, speed, goniometry) and more recently, internal measurements such as temperature, blood oxygen and the constituents of human sweat. Data is analyzed in accordance with human performance – monitoring the execution of elite sports activities, or assessing normal function for those otherwise restricted, and it’s here that the majority of wearables, reach their functional limits. The ability to affect change within the individual human body, through a smart wearable device, and in response to data generated is not yet a fully commercialized offer.

What if the future of smart wearables is equally focused on affect as well as effect? If the data generated from motion, thermal or heart rate sensors can trigger an instantaneous change within the body? NMES Group began its journey in neuromuscular electrical stimulation, offering a wholly innovative system to deliver electrical current through the skin to produce muscle contractions. The subsequent development of unique stimulation programs for a multitude of sport, fitness, occupational health and medical uses was a natural progression. However, pioneering innovation in stimulation programs has enabled NMES Group to think outside of the box, and revolutionize the technology through enhanced haptics in gaming and military applications – and this is just the beginning. The next phase lies firmly in a closed loop system – the intelligent application of muscle stimulation in response to real-time data generated through smart sensors, providing a platform for multiple diverse industry applications.

Nanoleq is a spinoff of the university of Zurich founded in 2017 focusing on stretchable and soft electronics integrated into textiles (smart textiles, e-textiles). The sensing technology is based on dry electrodes developed by ETH, Zurich, and Nanoleq that are sticky/adhesive (Electroskin (TM)) to reduce motion artifacts. Current generation of dry electrodes used in commercial heart rate sensor has a strap that needs to be firmly attached and you feel squeeze. The technology supports use cases from multiple verticals such as sport & fitness, wellness, rehabilitation, workwear and medical. Customers have integrated 2-20 electrodes. A high electrode count allows studying the heart vector in unprecedented detail. The soft electrodes are very suitable for children. I would like to present a few typical signal traces.
Elastic conductive tape (Phantomtape) connected to the electrodes and runs to the Phantomlink bridge that forms the interface between the textile and attached electronics. The PhantomLink connector solution is compatible with analogue and digital signals in e-textiles for ECG, EMG, EEG or for electrostimulation The Nanoleq solution is unique because not only has Nanoleq developed the technology but also the associated testing protocols for validation which is equally important.
I will discuss the integration of the components and how to make a shirt. As a last step I will elaborate over the design of analogue electronics outlining a complete hardware stack.

Neteera has designed and developed a contactless vital-signs monitoring product capable of detecting a variety of physiological parameters (Hear Rate, Hear Rate Variability, Respiration Rate, Respiration Depth, Inhale/Exhale ratio, Sleep Apnea, etc.), based on an on-chip sub-THz (116-123 GHz) micro-radar and advanced signal processing and AI algorithms. The Vital Sign parameters are monitored continuously and presented in real time on a monitor and/or stored in the cloud for offline analysis. The Product is targeted to both Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) at home, Elderly care monitoring, Chronic diseases patients, relevant Hospital wards, etc.
Neteera’s novel micro radar-based solution enables measuring only the micro-motions of the skin (BCG-Ballistocardiograph) remotely, in real-time, non-invasive, and non-contact manner, through non-metallic materials such as furniture and clothing at a high resolution.
Neteera 130H product is based on the following key elements:
1. High-frequency (116-123 GHz), micro-radar on chip (with an on-package antenna).
2. Vital sign monitor algorithms, based on proprietary signal processing algorithms, that are designed to track the relevant vital signs metrics.
3. Cloud Cluster for data collection (including raw, processed, reference) and analysis.

Neural implants aim at restoring lost or impaired functions of the nervous system by electrical stimulation or recording of the brain. Current neural implants suffer from a mechanical mismatch compared to the soft host tissue, as they constrain mechanically the physiological motion of the central nervous system. This mismatch causes poor electrode-tissue contact, leading to unspecific stimulation or recording, as well as chronic scarring. At Neurosoft Bioelectronics, we overcome these fundamental limitations by developing soft neural electrodes, using more compliant materials, that seamlessly interface with the brain, promoting the long-term bio-integration of the devices and reducing surgical risks.

There is a clinical need for continuous monitoring of vital molecular biomarkers and drug concentrations. However, with the exception of venous oxygen and glucose, these concentrations are currently determined via lab tests. Lab testing costs valuable time, which is relevant for transient biomarkers and critically sick patients. Additionally, lab testing is intermittent at best, and requires infrastructure, reagents, and skilled operators, which aren’t always available in remote locations.

Electrochemical aptamer-based (EAB) sensors, invented and developed by Prof. Kevin Plaxco at the University of California, Santa Barbara, can be adapted for multiple molecular targets, are reagent-free, and work in-vivo, thus enabling on-body wearable devices. Nutromics is integrating the EAB technology into a wearable ‘lab on the skin’ to meet the pressing clinical need of monitoring molecular biomarkers and drugs.

In this presentation I will discuss the EAB sensor technology, how it compares with continuous glucose monitors, the advantages and limitations of the technology, and finally, the potential of Continuous Molecular Monitoring (CMM) wearable devices using EAB sensors.

Conventional electronic assembly processes like SMT reflow require high temperature resistant materials. However, conventional pliable and stretchable polymer films like thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) normally used for printed and flexible hybrid electronics exhibit poor temperature resistance creating challenges in the printing and curing of functional materials like conductive pastes, surface mount assembly and end-use durability.
The technology development center of Panasonic Electronics Materials in Osaka, Japan has been developing materials for FHE/PE applications specifically to address these challenges. Through various experiments and use-case devices, we have demonstrated that these new stretchable materials have the durability and heat resistance to be compatible with traditional SMT assembly processes. This presentation will explain the substrate technology in detail and introduce some use-case demonstration parts made using these materials.

This presentation will provide insights in how Quad Industries uses printed electronics as a platform technology to create wearable sensors and skin patches.
Printed circuit foils have been used for many years inside, amongst others, membrane switches and capacitive touch sensors, but one of the biggest opportunities in the field of printed electronics, lies in newly emerging applications, such as wearable health.
Quad Industries is a leading innovator in this field, and by means of S2S and R2R screen-printing techniques, the company integrates smart functionality on a wide range of materials, such as flexible and stretchable films.
This presentation highlights some of the recent developments in the development and manufacturing of electronic skin patches.

With the advance of digitalisation, the constant digital monitoring of our surroundings is becoming increasingly important. Complex sensor and feedback systems are required to meet the demand for increased interaction with the world around us. Especially in the field of personalised healthcare and well-being, the need for flexible or even stretchable devices is a major challenge.
At RISE AB in Norrköping, we are experts in screen printing and integration of electronic components. We design and develop sensors that can detect everything from temperature, pressure, touch, strain, corrosion to electrical signals. Screen printing allows the use of a wide range of printing materials as well as flexible and stretchable substrates. This talk will give an insight into the possibilities of flexible sensors produced by screen printing at RISE and their applications.

Clemens Tuerck from Ravensburger will show past examples of combining paper board games with electronic components. He will talk about recent tries to use printed electronics in new game products and explain why they failed and what hindered Ravensburger to use printed electronics. And finally, Clemens will present which future use cases could be interesting for the toy industry.

Driven by the constant search for improved workplace safety solutions, smart protective equipment equipped with sensors, actuators and connected technologies has grown considerably in recent years.

Electronic devices integrated into protective equipment offer unprecedented opportunities to better protect the most vulnerable areas of the body during work. Interconnected sensors and actuators react, interact and communicate with the wearer or their supervisors to provide increased safety and comfort. The capabilities of smart protective equipment can help reduce errors, the number and severity of accidents and injuries in the workplace, and therefore promote improved performance, efficiency and productivity.

The information, data and communications collected by smart protective equipment can also identify patterns of risk situations and potential hazards in order to establish better practices and work methods. Through a presentation, we will discuss the different possibilities in terms of smart protective equipment using flexible electronics and electronic textiles.

Accurate measurement of actual blood glucose levels is the base for effective diabetes management. This presentation will provide a snap-shot of the latest trends in glucose testing including continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and emerging non-invasive methodologies that receive a lot of attention. We will also talk about the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in this context, their potential but also some of the realities associated with AI/ML. Last but not least we will discuss how freely available data generated by all these innovative solutions creates value and evaluate the status of interoperability in diabetes care.

Simple RGB video of the human face gives away physiological information through tiny changes in skin color and motion — imperceptible to the human eye, but measurable by the computer to produce estimates of vital signs such as heart rate and respiration rate. The technology that accomplishes this is know as remote photoplethysmography (rPPG), highlighting its major advantage of not requiring physical contact between subject and sensor.

First proposed in 2008, rPPG has yet to be widely commercialized. This is in part due to the difficulty in obtaining reliable measurements in challenging real-world conditions, especially regarding illumination conditions and subject movement. This talk will (i) introduce the basis for the signals obtained with camera sensors, (ii) walk through the technological improvements made by researchers since 2008, and (iii) summarize current issues and give an outlook on future applications.

The development and production of a disposable sensor can be a time consuming and difficult process. Indeed, the cradle-to-market timeline for any medical device can be long and arduous, due to regulations, standards and gathering evidence.

When embarking on such a journey, it is important to be well prepared, to know where potential pitfalls lie and to waste as little time and resources along the way. Whilst certain steps cannot be rushed, such as gathering clinical evidence, it is certainly possible to optimise other areas.

Design and production are some of the key areas where time and resources can be saved. Rapid prototyping and testing, as well as prototyping with mass production in mind, can save time as well as money.

In this talk we will be highlighting some of the key areas of how pitfalls can be avoided, as well as how to make the eventual mass production more efficient

The fabrication of medical and industrial X-ray imaging detectors that combine minimum fabrication costs and high performances is the major challenge since decades. Due to their strong X-ray absorption, high carrier diffusion lengths and mobility-lifetime (μτ) product hybrid inorganic-organic perovskites like Methylammonium Lead Triiodide (MAPbI3) are highly recommended as novel X-ray converting materials. Here we present a two-step manufacturing process of a microcrystalline MAPbI3 based imaging X-ray detector which decouples the fabrication of the several hundred micrometer thick absorber layer and its integration on the pixelated backplane. Microcrystalline MAPbI3 devices show an excellent sensitivity of 9300 µC/(Gyaircm²) with a μτ-product of 4E-4 cm²/V. The resulting X-ray imaging detector with 640x480 pixels, reveals a high-resolution capability of 6 line-pairs (lp)/mm simultaneous with an outstanding low detection limit of 0.22 nGyair/frame. Our findings stress the great potential of this material class for X-ray detector applications.

Leveraging over 1 million voice samples from 80,000+ individuals, Sonde Health’s proprietary voice-based technology platform detects changes in user health - like mental fitness and respiratory disease - from changes in voice. Using advanced audio signal processing and machine learning, Sonde senses and analyzes subtle vocal changes due to changes in a person’s physiology to provide early health detection and monitoring. Sonde One, its health screening app, helps large organizations to execute a daily population screening regimen that helps reduce the spread of COVID-19, comply with government mandates, and return to work safely. Sonde has also leveraged its SurveyLex platform to enable rapid voice data collection for large clinical research organizations like UCB Pharma,​ Biogen, Massachusetts General Hospital​, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center​, Pear Therapeutics​ etc. and thereafter also enable voice-based health-detection models. Anya Gupta, Sonde's VP of Business Development, will describe the process Sonde has used since inception to develop their vocal biomarker platform.

In this talk, Anders Strömberg, Director, Head of Wearable Platform Division, Sony Network Communications Europe, will discuss the issue of trust in IoT devices for remote monitoring, the challenges and some possible solutions.
Care providers need to monitor the wellbeing of their patients. That means staying connected with them wherever they are, whatever they’re doing. Most of today’s remote monitoring applications require pairing with cell phones or smartwatches, using standard LTE connectivity.
Healthcare providers are continuously seeking to increase the quantity and quality of information available, and to offer end-users more practical, timely insights. How can they do this while also providing solutions that are as easy for all kinds of end-users to handle?
The answer lies in the convergence of new IoT, telecommunications and AI technologies which enable access to rich data and allow service providers to develop new solutions; solutions that, for example, improve adherence to prescriptions, enable early detection of conditions like diabetes and boost the users’ general health and wellbeing.
Both service providers and end users show a high level of acceptance and willingness to adopt these new technologies in the pursuit of better health and health services. However, there are some serious trust issues when it comes to IoT. Although the risks are not new, concerns have risen to a new level because of the vast number of IoT devices deployed in the field and the way in which they are being used.
Against this backdrop, Strömberg will discuss the balancing act required to bring trust and quality of service together to enable the future of healthcare and put forward some ideas about how to provide access to more, better and diverse data that enables greater insights and tailored services.

The development and production of a disposable sensor can be a time consuming and difficult process. Indeed, the cradle-to-market timeline for any medical device can be long and arduous, due to regulations, standards and gathering evidence.

When embarking on such a journey, it is important to be well prepared, to know where potential pitfalls lie and to waste as little time and resources along the way. Whilst certain steps cannot be rushed, such as gathering clinical evidence, it is certainly possible to optimise other areas.

Design and production are some of the key areas where time and resources can be saved. Rapid prototyping and testing, as well as prototyping with mass production in mind, can save time as well as money.

In this talk we will be highlighting some of the key areas of how pitfalls can be avoided, as well as how to make the eventual mass production more efficient

Printed electronics is a promising emerging technology for various applications in wearables, medtech, automotive and logistics. However, even though the possibility to print sensors and sensor systems is well know for more than a decade, products based on printed components only slowly find their way into mass market. One main hurdle is a reliable high-volume production and the possibility of a smooth transition from prototyping over upscaling to industrial production.
With its shareholders SAP, BASF and Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG, InnovationLab is able to bridge this gap and to provide a One-Stop Shop for Printed Electronics while even going beyond hard- and software production by providing AI and IoT services as well. In this talk, the Lab-2-Fab concept is explained and several examples for printed electronic applications will be highlighted.

One of the applications is an automated stock replenishment system based on printed pressure sensor foils. The case study is an IoT solution developed by Trelleborg Sealing Solutions for their customers.

The brain can be guided to perform better when it receives light of certain parameters in a process called Photobiomodulation (PBM). This is often done through light emitting or laser diodes. Today, this process is delivered through portable devices. Literature has shown PBM to be promising in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury and other neurological conditions, some of which are being tested with major clinical trials.
Dr Lew Lim and his team at Vielight conducts cutting-edge research in brain PBM and are also involved in several of the major clinical trials. The team also seeks new ways for the technology to improve the cognition of normal people, sports performance as well as even achieve bliss states in meditation.
In his presentation, Dr Lim will discuss foundational understanding of PBM. He will also show how one can improve one’s life by applying PBM in wearable devices for brain stimulation.

Soft conductive materials give significant advantages in neuro-electronic interfaces since they are able to comply and closely adhere to the soft neural tissues. Nevertheless not only is far from trivial to make soft conductive materials with appropriate performances, but it is a further challenge to interface them with hard electronic devices on one side and to achieve the required compliance to use in implantable medical devices on the other. Wise over the last decade managed to travel this route and to reach the market with its neuromonitoring devices based on the proprietary SCBI technology. The milestones of this journey and the opportunities opened by the technology will be presented.

After 4+ years of R&D, working with some of the largest pharma, CPG, retail and logistics companies, Wiliot has leant a lot of lessons about brining intelligence and connectivity to new classes of everyday things. Hear the latest on how the technology behind these self-powered compute devices is evolving, the applications that will be impacted and the implications for the ecosystem of brands and IoT companies that are engaged in this new area.

After a brief overview of the Ypsomed product spectrum, we will explain some of the drivers for the use of electronics and in particular printed / flexible electronics in drug delivery devices. We'll also discuss the tradeoffs that result from partially contradicting requirements around device usability, sustainability, cost, etc.

Melanie’s presentation gives an overview of conductive yarn embroidery and its applications for E-Textiles. Applications such as textile electrodes, touch, capacity, and proximity sensors, conductive paths, and pads will be presented as well as the electrical connection of LED sequins and the ZSK-E-Tex-Board on a ZSK embroidery machine. The electrical connections between electronic parts and textiles are automatically stitched by the embroidery machine.
Due to the high level of automatization of the embroidery technology, it can be used for the mass production of E-Textiles but already during the early stage of the development of prototypes.