Sensors Today and 50 Years From Now

By Sylvia He

Introduction and History

From the bulky, stand-alone monitors installed only on the select few high-value assets
to the miniaturized gyroscopes, barometers, and compasses in smartphones, sensors
have come a long way quickly.

An integral part of Industry 4.0, sensors reside in the Internet of Things (IoT) like cell
phones, electronic appliances, and other connected devices, measuring, collecting, and
exchanging data on temperature, light, motion, location, and vital signs with other
sensors in the network.

As the cost of sensor fabrication, data storage, and network infrastructure decrease,
300 billion sensors are projected to be used in lifestyle enhancements in a $10.5 billion
market in 2020. A higher proportion of the sensors will be printed and flexible, reaching
$7.3 billion in market cap.

Applications Today

In addition to consumer electronics, sensors are used in many sectors, including

agriculture, smart cities, health care, military, aerospace, and energy.

Sensors installed in housing facilities and on animals help farmers monitor animal
welfare to minimize illness and mortality as well as increase productivity and fertility.
Sensors installed in the fields inform farmers of weather and soil conditions so that
farmers can identify the best time to plant, water, fertilize, and harvest the crops.

In a smart city, sensors help city planners figure out where to install solar panels and
how many, how to reduce traffic congestion and track potential disease outbreaks. In
the home, sensors can help caretakers monitor seniors with neurodegenerative
disorders like dementia or Alzheimer’s and coordinate care with doctors and other
service agencies.

In health care, sensors are crucial in helping hospitals reduce costs and, at the same
time, maintain the quality of care. Since the Affordable Care Act has shifted from
reimbursing procedures to reimbursing positive patient outcomes, hospitals need to help
patients, especially ones with chronic conditions like diabetes, hypertension, and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, manage their medication and lifestyle so to
reduce the frequency of costly emergency admissions and hospitalization.

Wireless sensors are not only suitable for continuously monitoring glucose levels in
diabetic patients but also great for ensuring patient compliance. Patients no-show is a
big problem. With telemetry, doctors can monitor a patient’s heart rate, blood oxygen
levels, and even EKG remotely so that, instead of a snapshot, they can get a more
granular and holistic view of the patient’s condition. In addition, wireless sensors can be
embedded into pills to monitor if and how patients are taking their medications.
However, the pill sensors are still in their nascent stage and not yet widely used.

In the military, aerospace, and energy sectors, sensors are crucial in enabling predictive
maintenance of equipment that demands zero failure. With sensors, instead of reacting
to potential maintenance issues, engineers can analyze the data gathered from the
sensors to identify assets that require service early to minimize the cost of downtime.

50 Years From Now

Blood-based Continuous Glucose Monitoring. Image courtesy of NIH

Sweat-based continuous glucose monitoring. Image courtesy of All About

Circuits

Fifty years from now, sensors are likely to be smaller, cheaper, more accurate, more
flexible, more power efficient, greener, able to collect a larger variety of data and
integrated with an increasing number of different technologies.
Smaller and Cheaper

Using new platforms, manufacturers can make smaller sensors that are as high-
performing as millimeter- and microwave-scale components and as cost-effective as
semiconductors. The new platforms will also reduce the cost of design, development,
and manufacturing. Moreover, smaller sensors are cheaper to make because they need
less silicon.

Also, sensors that can self-calibrate will be cost-effective in the long run. Calibration to
ensure accuracy is time-consuming. Self-calibration sensors require less maintenance
and will, therefore, cost less. In addition, sensors that can repair themselves (self-heal)
in the event of a disaster or other structural disruptions will be cheaper to use and
maintain.

Higher Accuracy

The research on multi-channel cooperative spectrum sensing is still in the early stage,
but one day, it can be translated into multi-channel spectral sensors that are more
accurate than single-channel sensors.

Sensors that are more accurate, reliable, and replicable have a better chance to obtain
government regulatory approval and be used as medical devices.

More Flexible

In the future, flexible light sensors, flexible pH sensors, flexible ion sensors, and flexible
biosensors, which are still in early development, may have many applications, such as
in artificial skin, wearable sensors, and micromotion sensing.

An example of a flexible sensor is the sensor for passive measuring. Based on

microwire technology and magnetic fields, the sensors are thin and elastic like human
hair, require no power supply, and can measure temperature, pressure, pull, stress,
torsion, and position without contact.

Sensing More Things and Collecting More Types of Data

Sensors of the future will be more effective in mimicking human senses and detecting,
dissecting, and analyzing complex signals, such as biohazards, smells, material
stresses, pathogens, and corrosion. For example, instead of being able to sense a large
quantity of a single analyte, such as carbon dioxide, these advanced sensors can
decipher each of the components in an odor. In addition, smart dust, which are
microscopic sensors powered by vibrations, can monitor diverse situations such as war
zones, high-rise buildings or clogged arteries.
More Medical Applications

Right now, health-related sensors mainly have applications in the entertainment and
lifestyle sector because their capabilities are not yet considered medical-grade. In the
future, more sensors will undergo the rigorous process of regulatory approval and have
medical applications.

Emerging technologies in biological hazard sensing include the miniaturization of lab

systems such as microfluidics, scientific validation of wearable sensors that make them
medical-grade devices instead of lifestyle and entertainment devices, analysis of
multiple analytes on the same instrument, reduction of the size of sample required, and
detection from other bodily fluids like sweat and tears.

An example of miniaturization of lab systems is an ingestible pill-sized camera that

allows physicians to visualize the human intestinal tract. This procedure does not
require the sedation of the patient and is less invasive than the traditional endoscopy.

An example of sensing other bodily fluids than blood is a sweat sensor patch to monitor
glucose levels in diabetic patients. The patch is currently in a pilot program to track the
hydration levels in professional football players. If the sweat-based continuous glucose
monitoring sensors are used, they will be smaller, less invasive, and easier to wear than
the current blood-based CGM sensors.

Lastly, micro-sensor implants can also help track the healing of internal injuries so that
healthcare professionals can take appropriate action based on continual data from the
sensor.

More Energy Efficient

Most of the existing sensors are not energy efficient because they are always on. To
make the sensors more energy efficient, engineers can make them event-driven. This
way, the sensors are on only when an event activates them; when they are in standby
mode, they consume close to zero power.

Sensors can also become energy-efficient by harvesting energy from their

environments, such as kinetic motion, pressure, light, or the heat difference between a
patient’s body and the surrounding air.

Greener

Environmentally friendly or biodegradable sensors are likely to gain more popularity in

the future. For example, a green sensor may use a dissolvable paper-based battery
powered by bacteria. These sensors are suitable for time-based data collection in the
agricultural setting (to monitor moisture and nutrient content in the soil), in the
environmental setting, or for temporary medical purposes.
Increasing Complexity and Incorporating Other Technologies

Sensors will gain additional complexity by working in coordination. Sensor swarms

coordinate their activities, deciding what to measure and where through a self-learning
system.

Sensors will also become more diverse as they incorporate different technologies. For
example, a laser-based sensor works by firing a laser into a strip of titanium dioxide,
forming an evanescent field above the sensor’s surface and identifying the analyte
components from their respective unique spectrum produced in Raman scattering.
Time-of-flight sensors scatter infrared light pulses to measure the distance between two
objects. Piezoelectric sensors, made from materials like crystals, certain ceramics,
bone, DNA, or proteins, generate an electric charge in response to applied mechanical
stress such as pressure or latent heat. They require no battery and can work as
ultrasonic transceivers inside the body during imaging or health monitoring. Lastly, DNA
printing technology will enable the fixation of DNA onto the surface of a sensor.

Conclusion

In the future, there will be more sensors performing more functions in our lives. As they
become more miniaturized and user-friendly, they will become more invisible, observe
the unobservable, and achieve the nearly impossible.