Josephine Charnley, co-founder and CEO of specialist start-up Quantum Technology Supersensors, explains the role its products can play in medical devices and the effects they can have.
First, tell us about Quantum Sensors?
The latest Quantum Revolution is allowing the creation of affordable healthcare products that are attractive and easy to use. Quantum sensors depend on quantum phenomena to operate and add value by offering significant increases in sensitivity compared to classical alternatives and the ability to measure properties otherwise inaccessible. Improved performance can also stem from size, sensing capabilities and reduced power consumption.
What do the Quantum Sensors do?
Quantum Technology Supersensors (QTSS) are remarkable and innovative quantum material sensors that sense pressure, shear and friction. They can be easily printed onto hard and soft surfaces including textiles and other recyclable substrates, having the potential to transform the way healthcare is provided and revolutionise the healthcare industry.
QTSS quantum sensors are based on semiconductor magnetite-based materials that have been processed and engineered in a special way to precisely control quantum-mechanical effects on small numbers of particles. This produces unique, ‘high sensitivity’ and ‘vast range’ sensing capabilities and ‘energy efficient’ affordable printable sensors which are also more enviro-friendly and sustainable to manufacture than for example graphene and carbon nanotube-based sensors.
The low latency associated with their quantum conduction enables an instantaneous response and excitingly resistive, capacitive and hybrid outputs can be utilised for intuitive sensing and unique user experiences. This opens up possibilities for simplified switching, proportional scrolling, centre-of-mass identification, multi-touch and matrix sensing in medical and healthcare products.
What kind of medical devices could they be used in?
Multi-functionality, low-weighting and design freedom means novel yet more sustainable product innovation. Healthcare could benefit significantly from affordable, mass producible QTSS quantum sensors as they could be incorporated into products such as bed sheets, wheelchair seats and bandages to monitor not only pressures but shear and friction as well to aid the prevention of sores. Socks or insoles could have QTSS quantum sensors applied for gait analysis to assist in monitoring neurodegenerative diseases or elderly care fall prediction.
In prosthetics one can imagine easy-to-use QTSS quantum sensor liners monitoring socket fit and sending alerts warning of impending skin damage or alternatively be used in 'bionic arms' to detect muscle twitches with software converting the impulses to arm movements.
The next generation of wearables embedded with QTSS quantum sensors could enable products such as affordable helmet liners to monitor brain injuring impacts and clothing to monitor the infliction of wounds. QTSS quantum materials are currently being utilised in robotics to provide human-like touch sensing capability to robotic hands.
What makes them more environmentally friendly, energy and cost efficient?
Alternative sensing technologies contain elements and compounds that are not as environmentally friendly, or they are expensive and their production processes are complex creating large carbon footprints; QTSS quantum materials based on magnetite do not suffer these problems. Magnetite is also easy to identify for recovery and recycling in an electronics circular economy. These QTSS quantum materials harness more ‘energy-efficient’ sub-atomic quantum conduction mechanisms.
Anything else you’d like to add?
QTSS quantum sensors sense across the whole range of electrical conductivity, from insulator to conductor and provide other unique and remarkable electrical effects which could also be utilised in the future, for example in advanced capacitors and energy storage.
We are interested in hearing from companies looking to create more sustainable medical and healthcare products for the future and exploit the significant benefits that QTSS Quantum Sensors have to offer.
