SBIR Phase I: A Beat-to-Beat Blood Pressure Monitor Using Micro-Nanoscale Wrinkled Functional Materials

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to provide medical workers and consumers the utility of continuous blood pressure monitoring with an easy to use adhesive soft sensor, which can greatly improve personalized care and patient outcomes. While a patient is undergoing surgery, blood pressure is monitored because sudden drops have been linked to irreversible tissue and/or organ damage, resulting in post-operative complications and mortality. The traditional arm cuff blood pressure monitor is primarily used in surgical settings but while it is not invasive, the cuff doesn't capture sudden changes in blood pressure. There are more than 50 million surgeries are performed annually, > 85% of which rely on non-continuous blood pressure arm cuffs. This project will develop a new wearable medical device to non-invasively and continuously measure beat-to-beat blood pressure. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase 1 project will advance a new device for non-invasive and continuously blood pressure monitoring. Current devices are limited by their accuracy and temporal resolution. The proposed medical device is based on soft wearable pressure sensors that solves the cost, accuracy, and temporal resolution problem. The soft sensor adheres to the body wherever a pulse is palpable and measures the arterial expansion on the surface of the skin as a pulse wave traverses the artery. Soft sensor technology leverages the highly elastic properties of micro-nanostructure wrinkled electronic thin films developed using a novel shrinking fabrication process. Preliminary results using these soft wearable sensors established high correlation to the gold standard arterial line. This project will develop electronics to read and output signals wirelessly from multiple channels as well as highly pressure-sensitive multichannel sensors and a wristband form factor design. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.