Smart textiles with integrated optical sensors for medical and health care applications

Kurzfassung

A German institute for Materials Research and Testing developed technical textiles integrating Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) sensors to measure vital physilogical parameters and to monitore patients requiring continuous medical assistance and treatment. The biocompatible POF sensors have a high elasticity and a high break-down strain making them well suited for integration into technical and medical textiles. The institute is looking for partners for technical cooperations and for EU projects.

Details

Wearable health systems and protective clothing have been recognized as key technologies to improve the personal protection and health care of Europe's citizens. Smart biomedical garments and clothing act as "a second skin" and detect vital signals of the wearer's body or changes in the wearer's environment.

In the past most effort has been done to integrate non-optical sensors into technical textiles, optical fibres were only used for illumination purposes or for luminescent clothes. Nowaday optical fibre sensors are still unusual in spite of numerous advantages in comparison with classical electric sensors.

Polymer Optical Fibre (POF) sensors usually consist of a polymethylmethacrylate core and a fluoropolymer cladding. The biocompatibility and the intrisinc properties (high elasticity, high break-down strain, no need for very accurate alignement between light source and fibre, simple handling) of these materials make POF sensors well suited for integration into smart textiles for medical applications.

For medical and healthcare applications, Polymer Optical Fibre or Glass Fibre (Fiber Bragg Gratings) sensors embedded into technical textiles can measure various vital parameters such as respiratory movements, cardiac rate and pulse oxymetry. The resulting smart textile provides a wearable solution for healthcare monitoring for patients requiring a continuous medical assistance along all phases of a treatment.

Polymer optical fibre sensors integrated into an elastic fabric worn by a patient can monitore anaesthetized patients during Medical Resonance Imaging (MRI) by measuring their respiratoryform and cardiac rate. As optical fibre sensors do not contain any metallic parts, they do not create electromagnetic disturbances as electrical sensors usually do. Furthermore metallic parts of electrical sensors placed in a MRI field may burn the patient's skin, this problem is avoided with the use of POF sensors.

Innovative Aspects:
- Wearability of the sensors for continuous monitoring
- higher safety for the patient as the sensors do not disturb or react with electromagnetic fields and can be used during MRI
- easy integration into textiles canvas as an optical fibre is a kind of yarn
- only one sensor's type for the measurement of several parameters
- biocompatibility of the sensors - Due to their fibrous nature, optical fibres can be processed like other standard yarns.
- Optical fibres can reliably operate as sensors in strong electromagnetic fields, under nuclear radiation, in high temperature and chemical environments
- The properties of polymer optical fibres: high elasticity, high break-down strain, lightweight, robust, cheap and easy to install
- higher comfort as the sensors are integrated into a wearable textile which can follow the patient during all his treatment's phases.