Self-Powered Sensor

Dear Colleagues,

Today, there is great interest related to the concept of self-powered sensors, and different approaches, from qualitative to quantitative electrochromatic approaches to powered devices with electronic capabilities have been reported. Such approaches are oriented to implement point-of-care devices that are constrained in terms of the specific scenario of application and the final user.

Within the envisaged solutions, there is great interest in the ideal scenario, where no power is needed in the device. The system has the sample, and it generates an output, autonomously. In particular, these solutions can have problems controlling the sample. The other main issue is measurement management and the extraction of real data.

The simplicity of a truly self-powered system, without any battery and the constraint of available energy, presents the trade-off between capabilities and functionalities to extract useful data from such an approach, defining smarter sensing approaches.

The ideal scenario looks to have no electronics associated—no battery or power supply. These versions are based on solutions on paper (MicroPADS) or screen-printed devices.

In a hospital, or outside a controlled medical premise, the key issue is to settle the basis for personalized patient healthcare monitoring and the related big data management. Then, the capabilities for the management of these reading measurements are a key point.

There are different approaches to self-powered sensors, which are defined as qualitative, semi-quantitative, and quantitative. For a qualitative solution, a classic example is a urine test strip. The quantitative approach looks for a measurement that can be read, like a ruler, where the reading level is visually done. This is a chromatic case.

Other solutions for self-powered POC devices pursue greater functionality. If in the previous chromatic cases it is not of interest to know the amount of energy that can be extracted from the sensor element, in these approximations, the sensor element also has the role of an energy generator element.

The aim of this Special Issue on “Self-Powered Sensors” is to gather original contributions or review papers from researchers that are actively engaged in developing novel ideas in any of the innumerable sectors of development of these approaches.

Paper topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas: self-powered systems, qualitative self-powered sensors, and quantitative self-powered sensors.

Dr. Pedro Luis Miribel-Català
Dr. Manuel Puig-Vidal
Dr. Jordi Colomer-Farrarons
Guest Editors

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