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This premium article gives an overview to reflective waveguides, exploring their benefits and drawbacks, manufacturing, development potential, SWOT analysis, and more.

Due to their very high efficiency in transporting electric charges from light, perovskites are known as the next generation material for solar panels and LED displays. A team have invented a brand-new application of perovskites as optical fibres.

Imagine this: Clothing that charges your smart watch as you walk, buildings that vibrate in the wind and power your lights, a road that extracts energy from the friction created by moving cars, and flexible structures that change shape in ocean waves to generate clean electricity for communities around the world.

Several industrial, automotive, and healthcare applications rely on accurate and precise measurement of pressure. Flexible and wearable pressure sensors are typically fabricated using petroleum-based polymers. The solid waste generated from using such non-biodegradable plastics is harmful for the environment. To avoid this issue, researchers have now fabricated pressure sensors that use paper as the medium.

Scientists have created a face mask that can detect common respiratory viruses, including influenza and the coronavirus, in the air in droplets or aerosols. The highly sensitive mask can alert the wearers via their mobile devices within 10 minutes if targeted pathogens are present in the surrounding air.

Engineers have developed a process to print solid-state polymer electrolytes into any shape desired for use in energy storage. The research team say the 3D printing process of such material could be particularly useful in future medical devices where small, intricately designed energy storage offers a number of benefits.

Engineers a have created a small, autonomous device with a stretchable/flexible sensor that can be adhered to the skin to measure the changing size of tumors below. The non-invasive, battery-operated device is sensitive to one-hundredth of a millimeter (10 micrometers) and can beam results to a smartphone app wirelessly in real-time with the press of a button.

Using thin-film electronic patches or the so-called electronic "tattoos" for biomonitoring is paving the way for the future of healthcare in terms of better signal quality, higher patient comfort and wearability.

Instead of sitting in a tattoo chair for hours enduring painful punctures, imagine getting tattooed by a skin patch containing microscopic needles. Researchers have developed low-cost, painless, and bloodless tattoos that can be self-administered and have many applications, from medical alerts to tracking neutered animals to cosmetics.

This premium article looks into emerging biometrics, such as wearable alcohol sensors, lactate sensors, and hydration sensors, as well as emerging methods like urine sensors in smart diapers, 'Clinic on the Wrist' and 'Lab-on-Skin', and more.