Professor Tam Hwa-yaw, Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute, Chair Professor of Photonics and Head of PolyU’s Department of Electrical Engineering, has led a research team to develop novel fibre optic microsensors, which can be implanted into people’s bodies to enable more accurate medical surveillance for surgery and treatment.
The research team used an advanced plastic material, ZEONEX, to develop the microsensors, while they also added a ‘side hole’ inside the optical fibres to enhance their sensitivity. Named the “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors”, the microsensors are biocompatible, supple and extremely sensitive to very small pressure changes inside human bodies.
It can be made as small as a few micrometres and their sensitivity to pressure is 20 times that of traditional optical fibre sensors. Also, as the microsensors are humidity insensitive, shatter-resistant, chemically inert and biocompatible, they can potentially be used for a broader range of medical applications.
The “Side Hole Polymer Optical Fibre Sensors” research findings were published in 2021 in US-based The Optical Society’s Optics Letters. Some of the applications jointly developed with other universities have already been granted patents.
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| Research Units | PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research |
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