EAGER: Two-Dimensional Material-Based Epidermal Active Sensors for Brain Monitoring.

EAGER：用于大脑监测的基于二维材料的表皮主动传感器。

• 批准号: 1541684
• 负责人: Nanshu Lu
• 金额: $ 16万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1541684&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Two; Dimensional; Material; Based

Electroencephalographic (EEG) measures subtle voltage fluctuations along the scalp resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. EEG is widely used as a low cost, portable, and noninvasive means to capture not only cognitive and memory performance, but also brain disorders like epilepsy and stroke. Conventional EEG recording is obtained by placing individual thick and stiff electrodes on the scalp with conductive gel after skin abrasion which enhances electrode-skin contact. For many decades, EEG technology has suffered from limitations such as low spatial resolution, poor signal-to-noise ratio without proper signal amplification, time consuming and obstructive electrode connections, and short measurement time as gel dries out. Such limitations are partially due to the incompatibility between the soft, curvilinear, and deformable human skin and the hard, planar, and rigid electrodes and electronics. The ultrathin, high electronic performance, and transparency of atomically thick two-dimensional materials offer clear mechanical, electronic, and optical advantages over silicon in the neuroelectronics. This research proposes to explore the idea of replacing conventional rigid EEG electrodes by tattoo-like ultrathin, ultrasoft, dry electrodes and signal amplifiers fabricated from two-dimensional materials. Preliminary results indicate this idea is feasible and further research will prove the feasibility and future prospects for tattoo-like, long lasting, and high performance neuroelectronics to benefit society. In addition, the graduate student and post-doctoral researchers working on this research effort will gain advanced scientific and engineering skills needed to be technical leaders in industry, academia or government post-graduate careers. Moreover, undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds will be recruited to participate in the research effort to promote advanced science and engineering careers.The objective of this proposal is to carry out a feasibility study that two-dimensional materials such as graphene and atomically thin molybdenum disulfide can be applied as the electrode and amplifier materials for noninvasive, long-term, high fidelity Electroencephalographic sensing. The major technical barrier towards two-dimensional materials based epidermal active EEG sensor lies in the device design, heterogeneous fabrication, and reliable bio-integration with the final goal of enhanced EEG sensing. An innovative active electrode architecture is proposed in which graphene is employed as both the sensing and gate electrodes, and molybdenum disulfide integrated with ultrathin polymer dielectrics and graphene source/drain as the on-site signal amplifier. Two research thrusts are proposed to accomplish the feasibility study: i) fabricating and validating graphene based passive epidermal EEG electrodes, and ii) integrating molybdenum disulfide vertically on top of the graphene electrode with ultrathin polymer dielectrics and graphene source/drain as a transistor amplifier for active EEG recording. The expected outcome is an affirmative decision on the feasibility of an integrated neuroelectronics that can be conformally laminated on human skin without conductive gel but still able to record long term, high fidelity EEG with orders of magnitude signal amplification. For the targeted gain of several hundreds the active electrode minimizes both the extrinsic noise and allows substantial reduction of the electrode arrays.

脑电图（EEG）测量沿头皮的微妙电压波动，这是由于大脑神经元内的离子电流流而产生的。脑电图被广泛用作低成本，便携式和无创手段，不仅可以捕获认知和记忆表现，还可以捕获癫痫和中风等脑部疾病。传统的脑电图记录是通过在皮肤磨损后用导电凝胶将单个厚和刚性电极放置在头皮上，从而增强了电极皮的接触。数十年来，脑电图技术一直受到限制，例如低空间分辨率，信号噪声较差，没有正确的信号放大，耗时和阻塞性电极连接以及凝胶干燥时的测量时间短。这种局限性部分是由于软，曲线和可变形的人皮以及硬，平面和刚性电极和电子产品之间的不兼容。在神经电子学中，原子较厚的二维材料的超薄，高电子性能和透明度可提供明确的机械，电子和光学优势。这项研究建议探索用纹身般的Ultrathin，Ultrasoft，干电极和由二维材料制造的信号放大器代替常规的刚性EEG电极的想法。初步结果表明这一想法是可行的，进一步的研究将证明纹身般的，持久和高性能神经电子学的可行性和未来前景可以使社会受益。此外，从事这项研究工作的研究生和博士后研究人员将获得行业，学术界或政府研究生职业的技术领导者所需的高级科学和工程技能。此外，将招募来自不同背景的本科生参加研究工作，以促进先进的科学和工程职业。该建议的目的是进行可行性研究，即可以将二维材料（例如石墨烯和原子上薄的钼二硫化物）应用于无效的效率，以供无线电效应，以供无线电效应。基于二维材料的表皮活性EEG传感器的主要技术障碍在于设备设计，异质制造和可靠的生物整合，最终的脑电图感测。提出了一种创新的主动电极结构，其中将石墨烯既用作感应和栅极电极，而将钼二硫化物则与超薄聚合物介电和石墨烯源/排水集成为现场信号放大器。提出了两项​​研究推力来完成可行性研究：i）制造和验证基于石墨烯的被动表皮EEG电极，ii）ii）将钼二硫化物垂直整合在石墨烯电极的顶部，并将超薄聚合物介质和石墨烯源和晶体管散发器的排水源/排水量集成，以示置为主动eeg记录。预期的结果是关于综合神经电子学的可行性的肯定决定，可以在没有导电凝胶的情况下将人类皮肤合并地层压，但仍然能够记录长期，高富达脑电图，并具有数量级信号的订单。为了目标增益数百个，活性电极可最大程度地减少外部噪声，并大大减少电极阵列。