Thinfilm can be used to control the temperature of perishable articles when producing printing

Recently, according to foreign media reports, for the consumer to buy a frozen food, you can be a question of whether these foods have been kept frozen, you will think that these things are not thawed after thawing once again frozen is now this way. Indeed, this worry is disturbing because you cannot verify your doubts at this level of technological development.

However, a recent technology seems to end consumer concerns about Quick-frozen food. In collaboration with PST sensor, Thinfilm produced a printed, rewritable memory, the first printed temperature sensor monitoring system to monitor the temperature of perishable products such as food and medicine.

"This is an intelligent tool that can operate independently," said Jennifernstedt Jennifer Ernst, vice President of North America Thinfilm. ”

This idea sounds not unfamiliar, it is the key element of the concept of the Internet of things, which means that all objects are embedded to store data and network interaction chips, which is the perfect human life for the future of the ideal and imagination.

Thinfilm's first generation of sensors will be able to store the object's data. In this way, the sensor can record the temperature change history of the object, track the exact time, temperature and exposure information, and display it through a low-power reader. When users need this data can be readily available, very convenient, do not need to activate the cloud, and do not need a wireless connection.

There have been a variety of food sensing technologies in the past, such as sensors that change color as food rots. However, this technology does not store data and therefore cannot provide historical information about the variety of products in transit.

and a simple color-change sensing technology to identify different foods, the Thinfilm technology consists of several parts, a temperature sensor (also known as a thermistor), a battery, accessible memory, an optional contact reader, or a monitor. It took the developer nearly 10 years to make this print-type temperature sensor a reality. The entire circuit will last for 6 months, with each loop consuming only a battery (3 kv, 1-mahr) 0.2 ma current.

Thinfilm technology is different from today's technology for acquiring information based on RF technology. RFID sensors, for example, cost 100 of dollars, and many traditional semiconductor manufacturers have caused a lot of waste.

Thinfilm is an organic printed circuit, the cost is cheap, flexible, suitable for one-time use. In fact, this system memory is made of ferroelectric polymers, which are ideal for one-time use. Transistors are materials suitable for complementary metal oxide semiconductor integrated circuits. This allows the sensor to produce a very low finished product, by 2013 when the formal deployment of only 30 cents, and future production prices will be less and less.

Jennifernstedt (Jennifer Ernst) said, "It looks like a sticker, but it has a lot of features." It is a plastic material electrode thin layer, the outer layer is attached with the storage film.

In addition to being used for perishable food tracking, this temperature sensor can also be used in the pharmaceutical industry to ensure that vaccines and bottled drugs are kept in a moderately safe temperature on the way to hospitals or doctor clinics.

In the future, this technology can also be used for other purposes, such as the production of humidity sensors. Thinfilm will expand the digital ecosystem, so it is expected to build a range of safe, inexpensive and disposable sensors for different functions and uses in a variety of application environments.