Researchers at King Abdulla University of Science and Technology (Saudi Arabia) have found a fairly ingenious way to replace the severely limited chemical-based pain relief patches currently on the market — a circuit-based, smartphone-controlled heat patch.
The problem with today’s thermotherapy skin patches is that the chemicals in the patch are what cause warmth to seep into the aching muscles and joints as a means of relief; once this reaction takes place, they’re not reusable. This, in turn, makes them fairly expensive to use over the long term.
The group’s electronic skin patch was developed using an electrochemical process that deposited a very thin layer of copper onto a layer of silicon (grown using a thermal process). Specifically, the copper was laid atop a grid of semi-spring-like shapes (which allows the patch to be stretched), and reactive ion etching was used to cause the silicon / oxide films to be released from the silicon underneath, which was, in turn, transferred to a polymer base.
The result of their approach was an oxidation-resistant copper mesh patch capable of being stretched 800%.
In terms of functionality, the patch contains a coin-sized battery (which lasts a couple of hours when used continuously) and the circuitry necessary so that it can wirelessly communicate with any smart device. This allows the user to set the temperature of the patch, the amount of time it will be on, and more.
The researchers say several prototypes have already been built and tested for pain relief and durability on both human subjects as well as machines. They report good results, but note that more work needs to be done before the technology can move on to the commercial stages.
They did note that when this happens, it will likely cost consumers just $4.
The group’s work was published under the title, “Ultrastretchable and Flexible Copper Interconnect-Based Smart Patch for Adaptive Thermotherapy” in Advanced Healthcare Materials .
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