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Self-Powered Sensor

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2021) | Viewed by 29346

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pedro Luis Miribel Catala

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Electronics and Biomedical Engineering Department, Physics faculty, University of Barcelona C/ Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: point-of-care devices; bioelectronics and instrumentation; energy harvesting; lab-on-a-chip; point-of-care; smart power circuits; DC-DC converters; power management circuits; analog integrated circuit design; low-voltage low-power circuits
Dr. Manuel Puig-Vidal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Electronics and Biomedical Engineering Department, Physics faculty, University of Barcelona C/ Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, SPAIN
Interests: bioelectronics systems design; portable electronics for in vitro diagnosis medical devices; energy harvesting; robotics and microrobotics; AFM single-cell nanobiocharacterization for biomedical applications
Dr. Jordi Colomer-Farrarons

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Electronics and Biomedical Engineering Department, Physics faculty, University of Barcelona, C/ Martí i Franquès, 1, 08028 Barcelona, SPAIN
Interests: low-voltage low-power circuits; smart instrumentation for automotive and medical applications; smart power systems for e-mobility and technology transfer processes between universities and industry

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Today, there is great interest related to the concept of self-powered sensors, and different approaches, from qualitative to quantitative electrochromatic approaches to powered devices with electronic capabilities have been reported. Such approaches are oriented to implement point-of-care devices that are constrained in terms of the specific scenario of application and the final user.

Within the envisaged solutions, there is great interest in the ideal scenario, where no power is needed in the device. The system has the sample, and it generates an output, autonomously. In particular, these solutions can have problems controlling the sample. The other main issue is measurement management and the extraction of real data.

The simplicity of a truly self-powered system, without any battery and the constraint of available energy, presents the trade-off between capabilities and functionalities to extract useful data from such an approach, defining smarter sensing approaches.

The ideal scenario looks to have no electronics associated—no battery or power supply. These versions are based on solutions on paper (MicroPADS) or screen-printed devices.

In a hospital, or outside a controlled medical premise, the key issue is to settle the basis for personalized patient healthcare monitoring and the related big data management. Then, the capabilities for the management of these reading measurements are a key point.

There are different approaches to self-powered sensors, which are defined as qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative. For a qualitative solution, a classic example is a urine test strip. The quantitative approach looks for a measurement that can be read, like a ruler, where the reading level is visually done. This is a chromatic case.

Other solutions for self-powered POC devices pursue greater functionality. If in the previous chromatic cases it is not of interest to know the amount of energy that can be extracted from the sensor element, in these approximations, the sensor element also has the role of an energy generator element.

The aim of this Special Issue on “Self-Powered Sensors” is to gather original contributions or review papers from researchers that are actively engaged in developing novel ideas in any of the innumerable sectors of development of these approaches.

Paper topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas: self-powered systems, qualitative self-powered sensors, and quantitative self-powered sensors.

Dr. Pedro Luis Miribel-Català
Dr. Manuel Puig-Vidal
Dr. Jordi Colomer-Farrarons
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Portable electronics
  • Smart electronics
  • Self-powered biodevice
  • Self-powered biosensor
  • Self-powered electrochemical biosensor
  • Point-of-care testing (POCT)
  • Fuel cell-based applications

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 6658 KiB  
Article
Flow Control in Porous Media: From Numerical Analysis to Quantitative μPAD for Ionic Strength Measurements
by Pouya Mehrdel, Hamid Khosravi, Shadi Karimi, Joan Antoni López Martínez and Jasmina Casals-Terré
Sensors 2021, 21(10), 3328; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21103328 - 11 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2496
Abstract
Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (µPADs) are a promising technology to enable accurate and quantitative in situ assays. Paper’s inherent hydrophilicity drives the fluids without the need for external pressure sources. However, controlling the flow in the porous medium has remained a challenge. This [...] Read more.
Microfluidic paper-based analytical devices (µPADs) are a promising technology to enable accurate and quantitative in situ assays. Paper’s inherent hydrophilicity drives the fluids without the need for external pressure sources. However, controlling the flow in the porous medium has remained a challenge. This study addresses this problem from the nature of the paper substrate and its design. A computational fluid dynamic model has been developed, which couples the characteristics of the porous media (fiber length, fiber diameter and porosity) to the fluidic performance of the diffusion-based µPAD sensor. The numerical results showed that for a given porous membrane, the diffusion, and therefore the sensor performance is affected not only by the substrate nature but also by the inlets’ orientation. Given a porous substrate, the optimum performance is achieved by the lowest inlets’ angle. A diffusion-based self-referencing colorimetric sensor was built and validated according to the design. The device is able to quantify the hydronium concentration in wines by comparison to 0.1–1.0 M tartaric acid solutions with a 41.3 mM limit of detection. This research showed that by proper adjustments even the simplest µPADs can be used in quantitative assays for agri-food applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-Powered Sensor)
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9 pages, 2085 KiB  
Communication
A High Sensitivity Self-Powered Wind Speed Sensor Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENGs)
by Yangming Liu, Jialin Liu and Lufeng Che
Sensors 2021, 21(9), 2951; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21092951 - 23 Apr 2021
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3465
Abstract
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have excellent properties in harvesting tiny environmental energy and self-powered sensor systems with extensive application prospects. Here, we report a high sensitivity self-powered wind speed sensor based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). The sensor consists of the upper and lower two [...] Read more.
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have excellent properties in harvesting tiny environmental energy and self-powered sensor systems with extensive application prospects. Here, we report a high sensitivity self-powered wind speed sensor based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). The sensor consists of the upper and lower two identical TENGs. The output electrical signal of each TENG can be used to detect wind speed so that we can make sure that the measurement is correct by two TENGs. We study the influence of different geometrical parameters on its sensitivity and then select a set of parameters with a relatively good output electrical signal. The sensitivity of the wind speed sensor with this set of parameters is 1.79 μA/(m/s) under a wind speed range from 15 m/s to 25 m/s. The sensor can light 50 LEDs at the wind speed of 15 m/s. This work not only advances the development of self-powered wind sensor systems but also promotes the application of wind speed sensing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-Powered Sensor)
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14 pages, 10370 KiB  
Article
Self-Powered Point-of-Care Device for Galvanic Cell-Based Sample Concentration Measurement
by Albert Álvarez-Carulla, Yaiza Montes-Cebrián, Jordi Colomer-Farrarons and Pere Lluís Miribel-Català
Sensors 2021, 21(8), 2665; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21082665 - 10 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2337
Abstract
A novel self-powered point-of-care low-power electronics approach for galvanic cell-based sample concentration measurement is presented. The electronic system harvests and senses at the same time from the single cell. The system implements a solution that is suitable in those scenarios where extreme low [...] Read more.
A novel self-powered point-of-care low-power electronics approach for galvanic cell-based sample concentration measurement is presented. The electronic system harvests and senses at the same time from the single cell. The system implements a solution that is suitable in those scenarios where extreme low power is generated from the fuel cell. The proposed approach implements a capacitive-based method to perform a non-linear sweep voltammetry to the cell, but without the need to implement a potentiostat amplifier for that purpose. It provides a digital-user readable result without the need for external non-self-powered devices or instruments compared with other solutions. The system conception was validated for a particular case. The scenario consisted of the measurement of a NaCl solution as the electrolyte, which was related to the conductivity of the sample. The electronic reader continuously measured the current with a transfer function gain of 1.012 V mA−1. The overall system exhibited a maximum coefficient of variation of 6.1%, which was an improvement compared with the state-of-the-art. The proof of concept of this electronics system was validated with a maximum power consumption of 5.8 μW using commercial-off-the-self parts. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-Powered Sensor)
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Review

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46 pages, 10412 KiB  
Review
Self-Powered Sensors and Systems Based on Nanogenerators
by Zhiyi Wu, Tinghai Cheng and Zhong Lin Wang
Sensors 2020, 20(10), 2925; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20102925 - 21 May 2020
Cited by 221 | Viewed by 20395
Abstract
Sensor networks are essential for the development of the Internet of Things and the smart city. A general sensor, especially a mobile sensor, has to be driven by a power unit. When considering the high mobility, wide distribution and wireless operation of the [...] Read more.
Sensor networks are essential for the development of the Internet of Things and the smart city. A general sensor, especially a mobile sensor, has to be driven by a power unit. When considering the high mobility, wide distribution and wireless operation of the sensors, their sustainable operation remains a critical challenge owing to the limited lifetime of an energy storage unit. In 2006, Wang proposed the concept of self-powered sensors/system, which harvests ambient energy to continuously drive a sensor without the use of an external power source. Based on the piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) and triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), extensive studies have focused on self-powered sensors. TENG and PENG, as effective mechanical-to-electricity energy conversion technologies, have been used not only as power sources but also as active sensing devices in many application fields, including physical sensors, wearable devices, biomedical and health care, human–machine interface, chemical and environmental monitoring, smart traffic, smart cities, robotics, and fiber and fabric sensors. In this review, we systematically summarize the progress made by TENG and PENG in those application fields. A perspective will be given about the future of self-powered sensors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Self-Powered Sensor)
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