Role Flexible Electronics Can Play to Combat COVID-19 Pandemic
By Enfucell Flexible Electronics Ltd | 03.27.20
Application cases of Enfucell wearable temperature tag on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic in Wuhan.
In March 2020, the prevention and control of COVID-19 pandemic have entered a new stage.
The response levels of many provinces in China are downgraded, and the prediction model of the Zhong Nanshan Academician team shows that the pandemic may end in June.
All signs show that the COVID-19 Pandemic has been effectively prevented and controlled in China. This protracted "national war against COVID-19 pandemic" has appeared an apparent turnaround.
In contrast to the China’s situation, the pandemic in foreign countries is getting worse. As of March 18, the cumulative infections abroad have exceeded 80,000, causing nearly 3,000 deaths. The pandemic in Italy, Iran and other countries is even more severe. As of March 18, the cumulative fatalities worldwide are over 5,000.
Although the main battlefield against pandemic has been transferred from China to foreign countries, the situation of pandemic prevention and control in China is still grim and complex since overseas imported cases have appeared in many Chinese cities.
The vigilance against COVID-19 still cannot go down. Many "black-tech" applications have also been put into the "protracted-war" of pandemic prevention and control as superb anti-pandemic instruments in a timely manner. Among them, a revolutionary flexible electronic technology exerts its miracle effect and provides a targeted complete solution that can meet the rising demand for continuous temperature monitoring under pandemic prevention and control.
Why is temperature monitoring a key difficulty in pandemic prevention and control?
In the prevention and control of this pandemic, the Chinese government has adopted positive response measures like crowd quarantine, temperature monitoring and other control measures. Among them, temperature detection has become the first step to filter the potential COVID- 19 infections. In public places, traffic crossings, home quarantine, etc., the primary confirmationmethods adopted are temperature. Crowded places such as stations, supermarkets, hospitals and other public places are logically the key areas for pandemic prevention and control.
However, common temperature-measuring devices (infrared thermometers, mercury thermometers, etc.) have different degrees of "deficiencies."
For example, traditional temperature measuring devices cannot automatically record temperature data and are easily affected by ambient temperature; some temperature-measuring devices have high user experience requirements, people must be trained to use it and they cannot be used "plug and play."
Direct-contacting temperature measurement is prone to cross-infection, so it is not suitable to use such temperature measuring devices that directly contacts the human body like mercury thermometers. In stations, supermarkets, etc. which always have a large flow of people, traditional temperature measurement cannot accurately locate personnel, some body temperature measuring devices are too large in weight and volume to carry around.
These problems have also become difficult and pain points for the target group's temperature monitoring.
Take the aircraft cabin – a closed environment as an example to show the use of smart wearable temperature tag in the following flowchart:
During the present COVID-19 pandemic, a flight takes a temperature measurement every half an hour and a complete historical temperature file is established before disembarking and handed over to the local management agency at the destination.
Zhong Nanshan, a high-level expert group leader of the National Hygiene and Health Commission and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that many provinces and cities in China have maintained zero growth in new cases of COVID-19 now, indicating that this pandemic has been controlled to a certain extent. In this context, wearable temperature measuring stickers are believed to be able to better help relevant departments to take anti-virus preventive and control measures.
Also, as a place of control, such as home quarantine, hospital quarantine and office personnel management, there are different requirements of continuous body temperature measurement, especially for mass people temperature measurement.
There are many problems such as huge numbers of people to monitor, complex temperature measurement, and difficultly to record temperature continuously. The introduction of wearable temperature tag can realize real-time monitoring of target person and observation of body temperature data. It can also identify and exclude potential threats through long-term monitoring, helping administrative departments and agencies to achieve personnel management monitoring.
Aiming at the difficulty of mass temperature measurement, Enfucell Flexible Electronics Ltd. has successfully developed a kind of wearable temperature tag, which has been put into use in many hospitals. This wearable temperature tag can be attached to the patient's armpit or fixed on the arm. After activation through the mobile app, users can set the time interval to record the temperature according to various needs. The tag can accurately record the temperature change data and read real-time location information to help administrators precisely control the target people.
This product can realize non-contact measurement, thereby avoiding the risk of cross-contamination. Moreover, this product is small in size and easy to carry, just like a business card. Enfucell wearable temperature tag can accurately monitor body temperature data in real-time.
Adopting a high-precision temperature sensor, it can store a large amount of body temperature data. Only a mobile phone with the APP is required to realize "cloud monitoring."
At present, the product can be widely used in hospital management, public place control, home quarantine temperature measurement, office place control and many other fields. It satisfies the market’s major concerning requirements of "temperature accuracy, data read convenience, data safety and reliability and easy operation."
In addition, during the quarantine control period, the system can not only upload body temperature data every day but also implement other functions such as abnormal body temperature alarms, personnel temperature history records, data collection of persons under measurement and temperature measuring position display. The specific functions are as follows:
Following the Huoshenshan Hospital and the Leishenshan Hospital, the "mobile cabin hospital" played a huge role in the public health emergency protection of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. On March 10, 2020, as the last batch of 49 patients stepped out of the Hongshan Gymnasium, the first mobile cabin hospital in Wuhan, which operated for 35 days, was officially closed. Enfucell intelligent wearable temperature tag with "flexible electronics" as the core technology has been applied in Wuhan’s mobile cabin hospitals, which successfully solved the problem of continuous temperature detection of patients and fully demonstrated continuous temperature measurement, accurate data and long-term continuous recording and other features, which have won unanimous praise from the hospital and patients.
The Enfucell wearable temperature tag has also been successfully applied to Xuzhou Hospital, Jiangsu Province, East China, enabling continuous temperature monitoring during the process of hemodialysis of patients, establishing real-time files remotely through the Internet of Things (IoT), which effectively guarantees the safety of patients and dialysis effect.
In addition, this wearable temperature tag has been piloted in prisons in Heilongjiang Province and multiple communities in Nanjing to assist local government agencies and communities in monitoring population temperature and managing location.
Enfucell's original flexible electronics technology
The core of Enfucell wearable temperature tag is a revolutionary electronic technology – flexible electronic technology. Flexible electronics have a wide range of applications in the fields of information, energy, medical treatment, national defense, etc. due to their unique flexibility/ductility and efficient, low-cost manufacturing processes. Corresponding products are such as flexible electronic displays, organic light-emitting diodes OLED, printed RFID, thin-film solar panels, Electronic newspaper, electronic skin, etc. The pandemic of COVID-19 will promote the development of flexible electronic technology in wearable medical and flexible smart electronic products.
Since its establishment, Enfucell Flexible Electronics Ltd. has been focusing on flexible electronics-related technologies. It is a one-stop product manufacturing and solution provider that integrates basic research, product development, solution provision, production and operation. All kinds of Enfucell products are based on its flexible electronics paper battery solution, which is praised by the industry as the pioneer of flexible electronics industrialization.
Unlike traditional batteries, the SoftBattery is flexible in shape, thickness and size. It is tailored to customers’ requirements. The thickness of a flexible printed battery can be adjusted by controlling the printed layers’ thickness and the selection of the sealing substrate/material. The typical thickness of such a battery is 0.4 to 1.0mm. The SoftBattery can be attached to a curved surface with a bending radius as small as 25mm. In the years since its establishment, Enfucell dedicated itself to the development of applications using the SoftBattery and made great achievements. The following products have been developed by Enfucell.
Enfucell smart temperature tag is based on a combined technology of RFID, an intelligent temperature sensor and the printed paper battery. It is the slimmest paper-like temperature logger that is applicable for cold chain logistics management of temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceutical products, perishable foods and flowers, etc. It reliably records time and temperature data of products during transportation and storage. Everyone concerned about the quality of temperature-sensitive products, including manufacturers, distributors, logistics providers, governments and even consumers, can now be a part of cold chain logistics management through the simplified reading and tracking system with Enfucell smart temperature tags. The data can be read locally by a mobile device (or special device reader) or uploaded to the cloud for analytics and remediation. The Softbattery-assisted Enfucell Smart Temperature Tag makes logistics more reliable.
The Iontophoresis face mask consists of a conductive non-woven mask and a pair of 1.5V SoftBatteries (called Iontophoresis battery patch). The battery enables the Iontophoresis process. Iontophoresis is defined as the introduction, by means of direct electrical current, of ions of soluble salts into the tissues of the body for therapeutic purposes. It is a technique to enhance the transport of drug ions across tissue barriers, such as the skin. When the Enfucell Iontophoresis Face Mask is in use, the anode electrode of the battery is on the serum saturated mask, and the cathode electrode is on clean skin. A complete current circuit is formed through the skin and the iontophoresis process starts. Water in the cosmetic flows from the active electrode to the skin, any active aqueous solution, ionic or non-ionic, enters the skin with water.
Compared to traditional masks, the mask integrated with a SoftBattery has a quicker effect. And thanks to the thin and flexible printed battery, Iontophoresis masks are more convenient to use than conventional iontophoresis devices which are bulky and non-disposable. The Enfucell Iontophoresis Face Mask makes beauty care more effective and more convenient.
Based on more than ten years’ experience of R & D and production, under the leadership of Dr. Xiachang Zhang, "the Father of Paper Battery," Enfucell has customized solutions in medical services, cold chain transportation, anti-counterfeiting monitoring, intelligent packaging, wearable devices and many different fields according to various requirements. In view of the excellent transcripts submitted by Enfucell in the application side of flexible paper batteries in recent years, the technology of flexible printed batteries has attracted widespread attention within and outside the industry which means a broad market prospect.
At a critical time for the globalization of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, governments of all countries are paying close attention to and learning from China’s successful experience in preventing and controlling the coronavirus pandemic. Enfucell wearable temperature tag is a powerful “weapon” to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is said that Enfucell has received purchasing interest from Italy. In order to win this global fight as early as possible, Enfucell will provide products to hospitals, airports, different nations’ CDCs and other anti-pandemic front- line institutions around the world to preferentially protect the life safety of front-line medical staff and service personnel. We will continue to share experiences to help countries around the world achieve the anti-coronavirus pandemic success at an early date.
The response levels of many provinces in China are downgraded, and the prediction model of the Zhong Nanshan Academician team shows that the pandemic may end in June.
All signs show that the COVID-19 Pandemic has been effectively prevented and controlled in China. This protracted "national war against COVID-19 pandemic" has appeared an apparent turnaround.
In contrast to the China’s situation, the pandemic in foreign countries is getting worse. As of March 18, the cumulative infections abroad have exceeded 80,000, causing nearly 3,000 deaths. The pandemic in Italy, Iran and other countries is even more severe. As of March 18, the cumulative fatalities worldwide are over 5,000.
Although the main battlefield against pandemic has been transferred from China to foreign countries, the situation of pandemic prevention and control in China is still grim and complex since overseas imported cases have appeared in many Chinese cities.
The vigilance against COVID-19 still cannot go down. Many "black-tech" applications have also been put into the "protracted-war" of pandemic prevention and control as superb anti-pandemic instruments in a timely manner. Among them, a revolutionary flexible electronic technology exerts its miracle effect and provides a targeted complete solution that can meet the rising demand for continuous temperature monitoring under pandemic prevention and control.
Why is temperature monitoring a key difficulty in pandemic prevention and control?
In the prevention and control of this pandemic, the Chinese government has adopted positive response measures like crowd quarantine, temperature monitoring and other control measures. Among them, temperature detection has become the first step to filter the potential COVID- 19 infections. In public places, traffic crossings, home quarantine, etc., the primary confirmationmethods adopted are temperature. Crowded places such as stations, supermarkets, hospitals and other public places are logically the key areas for pandemic prevention and control.
However, common temperature-measuring devices (infrared thermometers, mercury thermometers, etc.) have different degrees of "deficiencies."
For example, traditional temperature measuring devices cannot automatically record temperature data and are easily affected by ambient temperature; some temperature-measuring devices have high user experience requirements, people must be trained to use it and they cannot be used "plug and play."
Direct-contacting temperature measurement is prone to cross-infection, so it is not suitable to use such temperature measuring devices that directly contacts the human body like mercury thermometers. In stations, supermarkets, etc. which always have a large flow of people, traditional temperature measurement cannot accurately locate personnel, some body temperature measuring devices are too large in weight and volume to carry around.
These problems have also become difficult and pain points for the target group's temperature monitoring.
Take the aircraft cabin – a closed environment as an example to show the use of smart wearable temperature tag in the following flowchart:
During the present COVID-19 pandemic, a flight takes a temperature measurement every half an hour and a complete historical temperature file is established before disembarking and handed over to the local management agency at the destination.
Zhong Nanshan, a high-level expert group leader of the National Hygiene and Health Commission and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that many provinces and cities in China have maintained zero growth in new cases of COVID-19 now, indicating that this pandemic has been controlled to a certain extent. In this context, wearable temperature measuring stickers are believed to be able to better help relevant departments to take anti-virus preventive and control measures.
Also, as a place of control, such as home quarantine, hospital quarantine and office personnel management, there are different requirements of continuous body temperature measurement, especially for mass people temperature measurement.
There are many problems such as huge numbers of people to monitor, complex temperature measurement, and difficultly to record temperature continuously. The introduction of wearable temperature tag can realize real-time monitoring of target person and observation of body temperature data. It can also identify and exclude potential threats through long-term monitoring, helping administrative departments and agencies to achieve personnel management monitoring.
Aiming at the difficulty of mass temperature measurement, Enfucell Flexible Electronics Ltd. has successfully developed a kind of wearable temperature tag, which has been put into use in many hospitals. This wearable temperature tag can be attached to the patient's armpit or fixed on the arm. After activation through the mobile app, users can set the time interval to record the temperature according to various needs. The tag can accurately record the temperature change data and read real-time location information to help administrators precisely control the target people.
This product can realize non-contact measurement, thereby avoiding the risk of cross-contamination. Moreover, this product is small in size and easy to carry, just like a business card. Enfucell wearable temperature tag can accurately monitor body temperature data in real-time.
Adopting a high-precision temperature sensor, it can store a large amount of body temperature data. Only a mobile phone with the APP is required to realize "cloud monitoring."
At present, the product can be widely used in hospital management, public place control, home quarantine temperature measurement, office place control and many other fields. It satisfies the market’s major concerning requirements of "temperature accuracy, data read convenience, data safety and reliability and easy operation."
In addition, during the quarantine control period, the system can not only upload body temperature data every day but also implement other functions such as abnormal body temperature alarms, personnel temperature history records, data collection of persons under measurement and temperature measuring position display. The specific functions are as follows:
- Thin, light, flexible and environment-friendly;
- Real-time &long-term body temperature monitoring;
- NFC mobile phone read (mobile phone read directly, local record, real-time upload);
- One card per person, continuous recording of body temperature for 24 hours;
- Real-time positioning (with NFC connection, trigger positioning data to achieve location);
- Self-set temperature measuring frequency, default 1 minute/time;
- 4,800 times of temperature measurement (1-minute frequency, continuous temperature measurement for 80 hours);
- Convergence of platform data, real-time temperature data of temperature measuring personnel, abnormal alarms (fever alarm, abnormal position alarm, etc.)
Following the Huoshenshan Hospital and the Leishenshan Hospital, the "mobile cabin hospital" played a huge role in the public health emergency protection of the COVID-19 pandemic in China. On March 10, 2020, as the last batch of 49 patients stepped out of the Hongshan Gymnasium, the first mobile cabin hospital in Wuhan, which operated for 35 days, was officially closed. Enfucell intelligent wearable temperature tag with "flexible electronics" as the core technology has been applied in Wuhan’s mobile cabin hospitals, which successfully solved the problem of continuous temperature detection of patients and fully demonstrated continuous temperature measurement, accurate data and long-term continuous recording and other features, which have won unanimous praise from the hospital and patients.
The Enfucell wearable temperature tag has also been successfully applied to Xuzhou Hospital, Jiangsu Province, East China, enabling continuous temperature monitoring during the process of hemodialysis of patients, establishing real-time files remotely through the Internet of Things (IoT), which effectively guarantees the safety of patients and dialysis effect.
In addition, this wearable temperature tag has been piloted in prisons in Heilongjiang Province and multiple communities in Nanjing to assist local government agencies and communities in monitoring population temperature and managing location.
Enfucell's original flexible electronics technology
The core of Enfucell wearable temperature tag is a revolutionary electronic technology – flexible electronic technology. Flexible electronics have a wide range of applications in the fields of information, energy, medical treatment, national defense, etc. due to their unique flexibility/ductility and efficient, low-cost manufacturing processes. Corresponding products are such as flexible electronic displays, organic light-emitting diodes OLED, printed RFID, thin-film solar panels, Electronic newspaper, electronic skin, etc. The pandemic of COVID-19 will promote the development of flexible electronic technology in wearable medical and flexible smart electronic products.
Since its establishment, Enfucell Flexible Electronics Ltd. has been focusing on flexible electronics-related technologies. It is a one-stop product manufacturing and solution provider that integrates basic research, product development, solution provision, production and operation. All kinds of Enfucell products are based on its flexible electronics paper battery solution, which is praised by the industry as the pioneer of flexible electronics industrialization.
Unlike traditional batteries, the SoftBattery is flexible in shape, thickness and size. It is tailored to customers’ requirements. The thickness of a flexible printed battery can be adjusted by controlling the printed layers’ thickness and the selection of the sealing substrate/material. The typical thickness of such a battery is 0.4 to 1.0mm. The SoftBattery can be attached to a curved surface with a bending radius as small as 25mm. In the years since its establishment, Enfucell dedicated itself to the development of applications using the SoftBattery and made great achievements. The following products have been developed by Enfucell.
Enfucell smart temperature tag is based on a combined technology of RFID, an intelligent temperature sensor and the printed paper battery. It is the slimmest paper-like temperature logger that is applicable for cold chain logistics management of temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceutical products, perishable foods and flowers, etc. It reliably records time and temperature data of products during transportation and storage. Everyone concerned about the quality of temperature-sensitive products, including manufacturers, distributors, logistics providers, governments and even consumers, can now be a part of cold chain logistics management through the simplified reading and tracking system with Enfucell smart temperature tags. The data can be read locally by a mobile device (or special device reader) or uploaded to the cloud for analytics and remediation. The Softbattery-assisted Enfucell Smart Temperature Tag makes logistics more reliable.
The Iontophoresis face mask consists of a conductive non-woven mask and a pair of 1.5V SoftBatteries (called Iontophoresis battery patch). The battery enables the Iontophoresis process. Iontophoresis is defined as the introduction, by means of direct electrical current, of ions of soluble salts into the tissues of the body for therapeutic purposes. It is a technique to enhance the transport of drug ions across tissue barriers, such as the skin. When the Enfucell Iontophoresis Face Mask is in use, the anode electrode of the battery is on the serum saturated mask, and the cathode electrode is on clean skin. A complete current circuit is formed through the skin and the iontophoresis process starts. Water in the cosmetic flows from the active electrode to the skin, any active aqueous solution, ionic or non-ionic, enters the skin with water.
Compared to traditional masks, the mask integrated with a SoftBattery has a quicker effect. And thanks to the thin and flexible printed battery, Iontophoresis masks are more convenient to use than conventional iontophoresis devices which are bulky and non-disposable. The Enfucell Iontophoresis Face Mask makes beauty care more effective and more convenient.
Based on more than ten years’ experience of R & D and production, under the leadership of Dr. Xiachang Zhang, "the Father of Paper Battery," Enfucell has customized solutions in medical services, cold chain transportation, anti-counterfeiting monitoring, intelligent packaging, wearable devices and many different fields according to various requirements. In view of the excellent transcripts submitted by Enfucell in the application side of flexible paper batteries in recent years, the technology of flexible printed batteries has attracted widespread attention within and outside the industry which means a broad market prospect.
At a critical time for the globalization of fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, governments of all countries are paying close attention to and learning from China’s successful experience in preventing and controlling the coronavirus pandemic. Enfucell wearable temperature tag is a powerful “weapon” to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is said that Enfucell has received purchasing interest from Italy. In order to win this global fight as early as possible, Enfucell will provide products to hospitals, airports, different nations’ CDCs and other anti-pandemic front- line institutions around the world to preferentially protect the life safety of front-line medical staff and service personnel. We will continue to share experiences to help countries around the world achieve the anti-coronavirus pandemic success at an early date.
