The flexible ‘smart skin’ sensor developed by his team is made from a composite of carbon fibres and silicon rubber, and works without battery power or onboard processing.
The flexible sensor is capable of sensing temperature across a much greater range than other comparable devices and can also withstand thousands of cycles of bending and stretching without losing its sensitivity to temperature.
Temperature sensors, known as thermistors, are found in almost all electronic devices, but are usually only capable of measuring over narrow ranges of temperature variation, meaning temperature sensors often rely on an array of different thermistors to cover a wide sensing range.
The new soft, flexible temperature sensor, developed by Dr Wagih’s team, however, is capable of reading temperatures across a record-breaking range from 30C to more than 200C.
This could make help make future wireless sensors cheaper and more sustainable, as fewer devices will now be required to cover the same temperature sensing range.