Healthcare is one of the most promising areas for flexible and printed electronics. Glucose monitors were among the earliest success stories for printed electronics (PE), transforming into a billion-dollar annual business. Wearables that monitor the user’s health in real time is a promising use case, driven by form factors that can conform to the body.

Monitoring medication usage is an area where printed electronics are being used successfully. Information Mediary Corp. is one of the most successful manufacturers of printed electronics in healthcare, having successfully commercialized its Med-ic smart medication blisters that use conductive traces to show that patients have taken their medications.

Michael Petersen, CEO of Information Mediary Corp., observed that printed electronics has some ideal niches in healthcare.

“Printed electronics is not a miracle process or material that should or will work everywhere,” Petersen said. “There are niches where it is the right tool for the right job, perhaps heated undergarments or our own smart medication packaging. Please note that those are then mostly simple circuits but not functional processors.”

Peterson noted that printable electronic traces still need to interconnect with batteries, sensors, processors and the like.

“As with many technological innovations, they are seldom a golden key to a new universe but rather a means to an end,” Peterson observed. “For that, they must provide tangible benefits at a value point which makes them interesting. That’s a tough goal for PE to meet.

“At IMC, we use printed conductive traces as ‘sensor grids’ in our Med-ic smart medication blisters,” he added. “It’s a nice way to decouple the traditional electronics from the customized and larger format packaging panels. We have used various printed electronic materials, including aqueous flexographic inks we developed in house, carbon screen inks, and copper accumulation. However, to expect that processor chips will or even should ever be printed is misunderstanding the world of electronic chip making and misapplying printing prowess which ignores efficiency factors and Moore’s law.”

Scott Miller, director of technology for NextFlex, reported that a number of new products are entering the market based on flexible and printed electronics.

“At this point in the maturation of the field, products are being developed for general use rather than based on the novelty of the form, although that’s still very novel,” Miller said. “That means that they are not marketed as printed electronics products but instead marketed as any other product would be, highlighting features, performance, usability, etc.”

Miller pointed to COVID-related projects as showing the capabilities of flexible and printed electronics.

“Over the last one to one and a half years, for obvious reasons, a number of devices have launched, with a focus on COVID-related use cases,” Miller noted. “One example is the BioIntelliSense BioSticker from Philips that is a vital sign monitoring device, which they studied for uses in COVID monitoring. Other interesting applications of flexible electronics related to COVID include surface decontamination and devices for testing that are in development.”

Klaus Hecker, managing director of the OE-A, reports that he is seeing growing interest in healthcare applications.

“COVID boosted the interest for medical applications such as smart patches to monitor vital parameters,” Hecker added.

Flexible and Printed Electronics in Healthcare Over the Years

Hecker pointed out that printed electronics has had a presence in the healthcare field for quite a long time.

“Starting from relatively simple printed electrode patches for ECG and glucose sensors that became mass-produced products years ago, flexible and printed electronics medical applications are developing towards complex systems including various sensors, power supply and even light in patches or mats,” said Hecker. “As these components are seamlessly integrated in patches, shirts or mats, this enables monitoring of vital parameters in a very comfortable way for the patient. Latest research work shows examples of in-body diagnosis systems that are even biodegradable or even absorbable.”

Miller mentioned a few interesting flexible electronics products he has seen in the healthcare space.

“There are so many applications that this is a tough call,” said Miller. “I would point to four applications in the healthcare space as being especially noteworthy:

• Wearable vital sign monitoring: “This has been a longtime application focus for wearable medical devices based on flexible electronics,” Miller noted. “The ability to continuously monitor multiple physiological parameters will be a game changer for monitoring patients both in and out of the hospital.”

• Diabetes (blood glucose) monitoring: “Flexible wearable skin patches help to produce more comfortable devices for continuous blood glucose monitoring. Products from multiple developers are on the market,” Miller reported.

• Bioelectronic medicine including electrical stimulation: “This is a newer application that includes both implantable and skin worn patches for transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. This is an exciting new field with a very large number of applications,” added Miller.

• Surface decontamination (Aionx) – “This is probably my favorite new application because it’s so important and topical and is only feasible with printed electronics approaches,” Miller said. “The company Aionx has launched their cleanSURFACES product that uses active electronics to kill pathogens; tests in hospital environments have proven high efficacy.”

One of the most interesting projects is being developed by CareWear, with its PhotoBioModulation pulsed light technology. CareWear’s technology is being used by more than 100 professional sports teams, including teams in the NFL and NBA, and CareWear’s Australian group is launching PhotoBioModulation as a potential aid for arthritis sufferers.

Dr. Eeshan Kulkarni, CareWear Australia CEO and physicist, recently discussed its efficacy for arthritis treatment with Printed Electronics Now.

“As the first wearable, wireless, FDA-registered LED light patches for professionals and consumers, CareWear is an innovative technology, which was challenging and rewarding,” said Dr. Kulkarni. “Our first challenge was developing the printed LED technology and scaling the manufacturing and assembly of the device. Currently, CareWear is in use in trials at the Mater Hospital.”

Opportunities Ahead

Because of its advantages, primarily related to form factors, flexible and printed electronics should thrive in the healthcare segments.

“Flexible hybrid electronics enable devices to have form factors that were previously impossible, and it’s that capability that gives them such advantage,” said Miller. “For applications in wearables, this translates to devices that are more comfortable to wear and bend, move and stretch with body motion. Because of this, the devices can be worn for longer periods of time, and they don’t impede normal daily activity.”

Hecker noted that flexible and printed electronics offer numerous benefits for healthcare applications, including seamless integration, robustness, thin tailored form factors, flexibility and being light-weight.

“We see a big market for various wearable applications in healthcare but also well-being and sports,” added Hecker. “Flexibility is a key requirement for the wide acceptance of wearables.”

Ultimately, there are plenty of future opportunities for flexible or printed electronics.

“The aging society and demographics as well as the growing interest in tracking and monitoring of vital parameters to optimize training or to predict potential long-term health problems require easy and comfortable devices,” Hecker said. “Flexible and printed electronics will be an important enabler for such products and applications.”

Miller said that in the healthcare and wellness devices area, wearables are the biggest opportunity.

“This includes skin patch devices but will also include other form factors like those that are textile/clothing integrated, curved and rigid, like a watch or headband, and more,” he added. “Skin patches are probably the most interesting opportunity for flexible devices because flexibility provides the comfort that wearers need.”