A Self-Powered Wireless Temperature Sensor Platform for Foot Ulceration Monitoring

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 24; no. 20; p. 6567
• Main Authors: Duah, Joseph Agyemang, Lee, Kye-Shin, Kim, Byung-Gyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 12-10-2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Biosensing Techniques - instrumentation; Biosensing Techniques - methods; Diabetes; Diabetic foot; Diabetic Foot - physiopathology; Diabetics; Diodes; Electric power; Electric Power Supplies; Energy; Equipment Design; foot temperature sensor; Foot Ulcer - diagnosis; Foot Ulcer - physiopathology; foot ulceration monitoring; Humans; Monitoring, Physiologic - instrumentation; Monitoring, Physiologic - methods; piezoelectric bimorph; self-powered wireless sensor platform; Semiconductor industry; Sensors; Temperature; Wireless Technology - instrumentation; Wireless telecommunications equipment; United States; United States > US; foot temperature sensor; foot ulceration monitoring; piezoelectric bimorph; self-powered wireless sensor platform
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s24206567

This work describes a self-powered wireless temperature sensor platform that can be used for foot ulceration monitoring for diabetic patients. The proposed self-powered sensor platform consists of a piezoelectric bimorph, a power conditioning circuit, a temperature sensor readout circuit, and a wireless module. The piezoelectric bimorph mounted inside the shoe effectively converts the foot movement into electric energy that can power the entire sensor platform. Furthermore, a sensor platform was designed, considering the energy requirement of 4.826 mJ for transmitting one data packet of 18 bytes. The self-powered sensor platform prototype was evaluated with five test subjects with different weights and foot shapes; the test results show the subjects had to walk an average of 119.6 s to transmit the first data packet and an additional average of 71.2 s to transmit the subsequent data packet. The temperature sensor showed a resolution of 0.1 °C and a sensitivity of 56.7 mV/°C with a power conditioning circuit efficiency of 74.5%.