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Every year, workers are injured and killed due to the build up carbon monoxide/dioxide and the high prevalence of volatile organic compounds while working in confined spaces. These problems are further compounded by the narrow entry and exit points from these spaces.

Current methods of monitoring worker health and safety in confined spaces rely on bulky atmospheric monitors and continuous visual observation. These methods are labor intensive and inaccurate, as they cannot monitor the atmosphere directly around the workers or indicate when workers are in a dangerous situation.

This problem has long been recognized by aircraft maintenance teams working on fuel tanks at Warner-Robbins Air Force Base. The team came to NextFlex for assistance in developing a wearable device to monitor the atmospheric levels surrounding workers in confined spaces.

With funding from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and support from the maintenance team at Warner-Robbins Air Force Base, NextFlex developed a next generation Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) confined space monitoring device. The device is designed as a flexible conformal armband capable of monitoring volatile organic compound concentrations, oxygen levels, temperature and humidity. Processing and communication are provided by a Bluetooth radio that can connect to a cell phone and allows for remote monitoring of the worker from a central control station. The design is powered by an onboard battery which can be wirelessly recharged using an embedded Qi charging circuit and brings together an incredibly dense array of features into a highly flexible, wearable and robust additively manufactured electronics format.

In addition to the high complexity of the design, significant effort has been placed into optimizing the antennas to maximize wireless range. Furthermore, the design was created to be highly secure, meeting FIPS 140-2 requirements, as well as meeting intrinsic safety requirements for explosion proofing in gaseous atmospheres.

“NextFlex has been highly innovative and responsive in working to advance the state-of-the-art in FHE in support of Air Force confined space maintenance requirements for an intrinsically safe, truly wearable atmospheric sensing capability which has been lacking to date. This AFRL-funded project builds on prior FHE advancements at NextFlex which enabled a flexible ‘Arduino^®-like’ microcontroller and applies it to a real-world Air Force problem. They’ve refined this FHE microcontroller to operate CMOS gas sensors and added necessary power and comms to enable wearable chemical sensing in hazardous maintenance environments and replace handheld systems,” said Mathew Dalton, Research Chemist and Program Manager with Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. “Ultimately this will help keep maintainers safe while reducing costs and improving productivity!”

When deployed, the FHE confined space monitoring armband designed by NextFlex will directly integrate into a framework already being deployed for the Air Force by Aptima Technologies. The armband will provide accurate and continuous monitoring of workers in highly confined spaces remotely. This new technology will reduce the number of personnel required to perform routine maintenance tasks, while simultaneously increasing the safety of the workers through monitoring of their working environment. By enabling unique monitoring wearables, FHE is helping NextFlex’s partners in the Air Force make the job safer for its personnel.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us

The Boeing Company and its partners the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), had a vision to build flexible antenna arrays using advanced flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) manufacturing. They partnered with NextFlex, a Manufacturing Innovation Institute with the shared goal of advancing U.S. manufacturing of FHE, to help develop mature multilayer patterning technologies for array antennas.

NextFlex provided funding support, technology insight and guidance to Boeing and Georgia Tech to produce printed carbon nanotubes and flexible ferrites, an array with surface adherence, flexible electronic packaging and low crosstalk feed technology. The partners tested the performance of antennas at various bends and environmental conditions to generate radio frequency (RF) data on printed transmission lines, a printed assembly of packaged low-noise amplifier (LNA) and printed magnetic film to ensure optimal coverage.

By combining expertise in FHE and advanced manufacturing, the partners developed a process to print antenna elements and a microstrip feed network on flexible hybrid substrates without vertical interconnect access greatly reducing fabrication time and costs. These multilayer antenna arrays include positive, negative, positive sourcing (PnP) electronics, patterned ferrites, environmental coatings to protect the arrays from harsh conditions and flex diodes and interconnects (ICs) to help the antennas transmit and receive signals from various angles. Collaboration between these companies initiated a fundamental foundation for advancement in FHE.

With NextFlex’s support, Boeing and Georgia Tech were able to collaborate to take the developed FHE antenna design and fabrication methods and create 2×2, 4×4 and 8×8 printed panel antenna arrays. They have been able to respond to the accelerated adoption of wireless and FHE technologies in the digital aerial navigation era, moving towards the launch of FHE “skins” for UAVs to be used in advanced commercial and military applications.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us.

General Electric quickly recognized that wearables are increasingly becoming the future of both the technology and health sectors. With this forethought in mind, GE Global Research partnered with Binghamton University, the Rochester Institute of Technology, Infinite Corridor Technologies and NextFlex to develop a revolutionary, ubiquitous sensor systems for medical devices and to help combat the key fundamental challenges of integrating stretchable printed leads in wearables.

To accomplish this mission, GE Global Research and its partners came to America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Innovation Institute, NextFlex, to craft FHE platform technologies for the fabrication of wireless, pervasive, and low-cost medical devices. With NextFlex’s support, they helped solve a major fundamental challenge of keeping device design and costs low through the implementation of FHE technology. The design approach addresses system partitioning between printed and standard flex, decreasing the wearable hardware size through FHE capability and addressing cost pressures. With flexible ECG electronics embedded deep within the printed sensor boards, the design is able to bend and move with the body while monitoring internal vital signs – critical to making a wearable functional for everyday use.

Key deliverables of this NextFlex funded project also included reporting on printing and characterization of RF components, reliability assessment of printed interconnections on various materials, including polyimide and thermoplastic polyurethane substrates, and interconnection methods for ball grid array devices to flex.

With the assistance of NextFlex’s FHE expertise, GE Global Research is propelling the future of wearable tech through seamless integration, and has two prototype designs of wearable, wireless 3-lead ECG modules for clinical use. The combination of a flexible substrate with a health monitoring platform will accelerate the adoption of wireless and FHE technologies in the digital health era and pave way for more miniaturized, low cost wearables in the future.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us

NASA developed a next-generation wearable flexible sensor array for astronaut crew health monitoring, also known as “AstroSense”. Multi-disciplinary teams from Marshall Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center, and Flight Surgeons at Johnson Space Center all collaborated with NextFlex to design a wearable sensor array aimed at monitoring astronaut’s health and vital levels in space.

In the span of four months, the NextFlex team contributed to the development efforts of the next generation sensor for astronaut crew health monitoring by building and delivering a specific piece of hardware called a potentiostat for performing electrochemical analysis and printed disposable electrodes for use with artificial sweat samples. The team also performed biocompatibility tests, designed an encapsulating enclosure for moisture and dust ingress protection, and delivered several mock-up prototypes for demonstration purposes.

With the support of NextFlex, the AstroSense device consists of two main components: a reusable electronic reader and a disposable electrode sensor. The reusable reader contains an antenna for wireless communication, electronic circuitry for data collection, processing and transmission for astronaut crew health monitoring, a coin battery and silicone encapsulant. The disposable electrode sensor consists of a flexible substrate with conductive electrodes and a stack of adhesives. The disposable sensor is attached to a reusable reader on one side and to human skin on other side. This next-generation wearable health monitor will allow NASA’s flight surgeons and health professionals to gain valuable data on the effect of stress upon the astronaut’s performance. This will lead to long-term improvements in the astronaut’s performance and overall health.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us.

The emerging technology field of additive, printed flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) promises to introduce a step change function in how electronics are manufactured and used, creating a product with superior mechanical and environmental properties compared to traditional processes at a lower overall price point.

As part of an FHE design and manufacturing demonstration project, NextFlex, in partnership with Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), translated electronic designs based on Arduino^® products from standard PCB circuit boards to printed flex circuits. The effort is currently in its second phase.

NextFlex developed a process flow for manufacturing a flexible Arduino that reduced the number of process steps by almost two thirds when compared with traditional electronics manufacturing processes. NextFlex replaced the traditional circuit board with a thin, flexible plastic sheet and used digital printing processes for circuit elements. Die attach of a thin bare die eliminated traditional microcontroller packaging while further enabling flexibility of the product. The new process translates to an anticipated savings in manufacturing time and cost, as well as a significant reduction in the end-product weight – the flexible version is only a third of the weight of the rigid Arduino Mini board.

“The possibilities for FHE technology are virtually limitless,” said Dr. Benjamin Leever, the AFRL Advanced Development Team leader. “Proving the manufacturability of this technology through an open-source platform will expand FHE’s reach even further by providing everyone from industrial product developers to high school students with the opportunity to innovate on new electronics concepts.” He added, “We are pleased to have teamed with NextFlex on this project and look forward to the next steps in the optimization process. This is truly a momentous achievement for the FHE community.”

The NextFlex Flexible Microcontroller is now designed in as the base circuitry for several functional products for defense applications.

With the design and manufacture of the NextFlex Flexible Microcontroller, several milestones in the additive manufacturing of printed electronics were achieved including:

• Development of design rules for the creation of printed FHE circuits
• Creation of high precision traces using a printing process for mounting of bare die ICs
• Development of a process for attachment of a bare die IC to a flexible substrate
• Integration of a 2.4GHz radio and printed RF antenna

Additionally, the  automated manufacturing process for the flexible version both reduced the overall weight and the number of process steps by about two-thirds when compared to traditional board manufacturing. This demonstration project showed the suitability of additive printed circuit and FHE technology for the manufacture of basic embedded systems.

For more information, contact NextFlex at info@nextflex.us.

Profusa had a vision for its Lumee™ Oxygen Platform to be used in patients with potential acute and/or chronic changes in tissue oxygen levels who may benefit from continuous monitoring. Before it could be commercially available, Profusa had a key issue to resolve with the wearable reader of its injectable hydrogel sensor.

“Ten years ago, you couldn’t build a reader that could sense multiple signals and filter out the ‘noise’ of the body’s other signals, all while being small and skin-worn,” explains Ben Hwang, CEO of Profusa. “With the latest advancements in flexible hybrid electronics technology, it’s just mature enough to work the way we want — primarily because we selected the right domain expertise partner to work with, namely NextFlex.”

Rather than try and balance a complex development cycle across multiple R&D and manufacturing facilities, Profusa found a one-stop­-shop solution at NextFlex’s Technology Hub in San Jose, which is also an FDA compliant manufacturing facility. Here, Profusa found it could develop its solution with NextFlex’s assistance in just four months while having the right conversations to move its reader design toward production at scale.

By combining expertise in flexible hybrid electronics, engineering, materials science and optics, NextFlex took Profusa’s design work and design criteria, and pushed them toward a smaller, flexible form that works in harmony with Profusa’s tissue sensors. In the end, improvements to durability, flexibility and performance were all achieved. NextFlex went on to manufacture over 1000 wearable units with increasing yield and productivity by the end of 2019.

Through NextFlex’s aid, Profusa was able to take technology that could previously only be deployed in a hospital setting and move toward having a device with clinical-grade information in a wearable and flexible form that’s attractive to consumers. Profusa has been able to respond to the accelerated adoption of wireless and flexible hybrid electronics technologies in the digital health era, moving towards the launch of a wearable device that generates data that medical doctors and consumers can get the most out of.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us.

NextFlex, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronic (FHE) Manufacturing Institute, has a state-of-the-art Technology Hub capable of fabricating fully integrated FHE devices and systems, utilizing advanced manufacturing processes and tools. The Technology Hub supports DoD as well as commercial electronics manufacturers by leveraging the benefits of FHE to reduce product costs, reduce product development cycle times, develop environmentally friendly manufacturing capabilities, and evaluate FHE equipment, substrates, materials, and components.

Sierra Turbines is a small California Defense contractor designing innovative, compact, high-efficiency turbines with features present in large scale commercial and military jet aircraft. Using additive manufacturing, they have developed a turbine engine which excels in reliability due to several design innovations such as a proprietary electronic control system, Engine Health Monitoring, and precision thermodynamic flows in both compression and combustion. Sierra Turbines’ initial market focus is on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and ground based, hybrid electrical systems. Flexible Hybrid Electronics technology shows great promise and benefit to microturbine applications given the inherent nature of FHE structures with applications to structural health as well as asset and system performance monitoring.

A SansEC sensor consisting of silver spiral traces was conformally printed onto a 3D-printed Sierra Turbines part at NextFlex using an nScrypt printer.

Sierra Turbines proposed to leverage a SansEC sensing system from NASA Langley Research Center. SansEC is an open-circuit, resonant sensor that needs no electrical connections (thus the name SansEC or “without electrical connection”). The sensor structure consists of an array of conductive Archimedean spiral-like shapes printed onto a flexible substrate. NextFlex fabricated these samples by direct-write printing silver conductive traces onto a flexible substrate. Given device requirements from Sierra Turbines and Technology Hub capability, NextFlex developed the patterns, processes, and materials as well as fabricated prototype proof-of-concept samples of the SansEC sensors. Sierra Turbines, in turn, evaluated for purpose and application. NextFlex further fabricated another pattern, tuned to a specific Sierra Turbine application.  Given the connection with NASA, NextFlex and Sierra Turbines made special consideration to NASA-compatible toolsets and materials in their down-selection.

The successful demonstration of the FHE-fabricated SansEC device demonstrates the capability of adding electronic structures to manufactured parts using an advanced additive manufacturing process. The particular electronic structure, SansEC, can simultaneously measure different physical phenomena — temperature, fluid level, rotation rate, or wear, for example — and functions even when badly damaged. Previous variants of the SansEC sensors had been fabricated using traditional subtractive manufacturing methodologies and, as a consequence, do not have the reduced SWaP (size, weight, and power) attributes inherent for an FHE device. By demonstrating that FHE tools and processes can be applied to this particular electronic structure, Sierra Turbines is now positioned within the FHE ecosystem and supply chain. Asset monitoring and management and FHE technology will enable Sierra Turbines to competitively bid on SBIR’s modernization priorities related to Machine Learning, Autonomy, Controls, Microelectronics, and other applications related to defense and aerospace.

For more information, please contact info@nextflex.us.