Papers by Leonardo LAMANNA
Advanced Materials Technologies
Recently, there has been a remarkable increase in interest in piezoelectric thin films, particula... more Recently, there has been a remarkable increase in interest in piezoelectric thin films, particularly zinc oxide (ZnO) and aluminum nitride (AlN), deposited on flexible polymeric substrates. This is due to the rapid expansion of fields such as robotics, wearable devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT). These thin‐film layered structures have a wide range of applications, such as energy harvesting, sensing and biosensing, microfluidic sorting, pumping and mixing, and telecommunications. One of the most promising platforms is piezoelectric acoustic‐based thin‐film devices on inexpensive, recyclable, or disposable polymeric substrates. Their reliability, reproducibility, conformability, small size, and wireless control capabilities make them a leading candidate for the development of new wireless, fully automated, and digitized microsystems for IoT and wearable devices. This review examines recent advancements in the engineering of ZnO and AlN thin films on polymeric, flexible, and co...
Advanced Materials
Edible electronics is a growing field that aims to produce digestible devices using only food ing... more Edible electronics is a growing field that aims to produce digestible devices using only food ingredients and additives, thus addressing many of the shortcomings of ingestible electronic devices. Edible electronic devices will have major implications for gastrointestinal tract monitoring, therapeutics, as well as rapid food quality monitoring. Recent research has demonstrated the feasibility of edible circuits and sensors, but to realize fully edible electronic devices edible power sources are required, of which there have been very few examples. Drawing inspiration from living organisms, which use redox cofactors to power biochemical machines, a rechargeable edible battery formed from materials eaten in everyday life is developed. The battery is realized by immobilizing riboflavin and quercetin, common food ingredients and dietary supplements, on activated carbon, a widespread food additive. Riboflavin is used as the anode, while quercetin is used as the cathode. By encapsulating t...
Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
Advanced Functional Materials
Advanced Materials Technologies
ACS Sensors
Improper freezing of food causes food waste and negatively impacts the environment. In this work,... more Improper freezing of food causes food waste and negatively impacts the environment. In this work, we propose a device that can detect defrosting events by coupling a temperatureactivated galvanic cell with an ionochromic cell, which is activated by the release of ions during current flow. Both the components of the sensor are fabricated through simple and low-energyconsuming procedures from edible materials. The galvanic cell operates with an aqueous electrolyte solution, producing current only at temperatures above the freezing point of the solution. The ionochromic cell exploits the current generated during the defrosting to release tin ions, which form complexes with natural dyes, causing the color change. Therefore, this sensor provides information about defrosting events. The temperature at which the sensor reacts can be tuned between 0 and −50°C. The device can thus be flexibly used in the supply chain: as a sensor, it can measure the length of exposure to above-the-threshold temperatures, while as a detector, it can provide a signal that there was exposure to above-the-threshold temperatures. Such a device can ensure that frozen food is handled correctly and is safe for consumption. As a sensor, it could be used by the workers in the supply chain, while as a detector, it could be useful for end consumers, ensuring that the food was properly frozen during the whole supply chain.
Nanomaterials
In this work, a new flexible and biocompatible microfluidic pH sensor based on surface acoustic w... more In this work, a new flexible and biocompatible microfluidic pH sensor based on surface acoustic waves (SAWs) is presented. The device consists of polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) as a flexible substrate on which aluminum nitride (AlN) has been deposited as a piezoelectric material. The fabrication of suitable interdigitated transducers (IDTs) generates Lamb waves (L-SAW) with a center frequency ≈500 MHz traveling in the active region. A SU-8 microfluidics employing ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) functionalization as a pH-sensitive layer is fabricated between the IDTs, causing a shift in the L-SAW resonance frequency as a function of the change in pH values. The obtained sensitivity of ≈30 kHz/pH from pH 7 to pH 2 demonstrates the high potential of flexible SAW devices to be used in the measurement of pH in fluids and biosensing.
2022 Microwave Mediterranean Symposium (MMS)
2019 IEEE SENSORS
The electroacoustic photoresponse of surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line device, based on piez... more The electroacoustic photoresponse of surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay line device, based on piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film sputtered on silicon rigid substrate and flexible polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate, has been investigated. The electroacoustic response of SAW devices has been analyzed by measuring the transfer function S21 under light stimulus of different wavelengths. The S21 out-of-band insertion loss of SAW devices fabricated on silicon is strongly influenced by the photovoltaic effect when the devices are stimulated by light. A mathematical model has been implemented to correlate the out-of-band loss with the material’s electrical admittance. The frequency shift of the resonance frequency modes (Rayleigh and Lamb) has also been characterized for both SAW devices on silicon and PEN substrates, when exposed to UV light. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first detection of UV light by a flexible AlN based SAW device. Further development of these devices exploiting electroacoustic photoresponse phenomena could lead to a new class of remote SAW devices as light sensors in the range between UV to IR.
Advanced Functional Materials
Advanced Functional Materials, 2022
IEEE Electron Device Letters, 2020
In the last decade, the development of new flexible electronics is producing pervasive technologi... more In the last decade, the development of new flexible electronics is producing pervasive technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and wearables transducers, pushing towards the demonstration of highly compliant low cost components on disposable or recyclable substrates. In recent years, there was a marked improvement in these technologies using organic or inorganic transistors. However, the lack of a high-performance passive-wireless devices in flexible electronics is one of the key bottlenecks for compliant IoT and wearables sensing nodes. One of the main building blocks for sorting this issue out is the development of flexible, bendable and stretchable acoustic-based devices, controllable via wireless antenna. In this work, a flexion characterization of a polymeric-based surface acoustic wave (SAW) device is presented. The flexible SAW is fabricated on polyethylene naphthalate (PEN), employing the high performance of the aluminum nitride (AlN) as a piezoelectric layer. The dual-wave modes, Rayleigh and Lamb, have been characterized. The Lamb waves show better results, in terms of strain sensitivity (1.81E-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$04~\varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>) and responsivity (1.156 kHz/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>), as compared to the Rayleigh wave (4.29E-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$04~\varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 0.577 kHz/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, respectively). This polymeric flexible- based SAW device could pave the way for the development of a passive wireless strain sensor.
Microelectronic Engineering, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Advanced Electronic Materials, 2019
Cellulose, 2018
Biodegradable cellulose-based hydrogels are attracting increasing interest in the academic and in... more Biodegradable cellulose-based hydrogels are attracting increasing interest in the academic and industrial fields thanks to their high swelling capacity and reproducibility, which allow many novel applications. These properties are enabled by amplification effect of their sensitiveness on a molecular level, translated into macroscopic effects such as a change in swelling degree. The monitoring of the hydrogel state is a crucial step for understanding the response of the hydrogel to external environment. Accordingly, the major aim of this study is to exploit ultrasound to characterize the swelling and degradation of cellulosebased hydrogel with different blend of molecular weight and degree of substitutions. The ultrasonic sensor used herein relies on the determination of a Pulse-echo time of flight. This technique provides dimensional information, thanks to its capability of monitoring the thickness of the swollen/unswollen hydrogel during sorption mechanism. Furthermore, by combining these data with a rheological characterization, the degree of crosslink and its modification during multiple swelling/deswelling cycles (due to ion strength variation) has been monitored. This technique could be an effective, alternative, fast and nondestructive method for real-time hydrogel characterization.
Materials science & engineering. C, Materials for biological applications, 2017
Alginate micro beads containing Lactobacillus kefiri (the principal bacteria present in the kefir... more Alginate micro beads containing Lactobacillus kefiri (the principal bacteria present in the kefir probiotic drink) were produced by a novel technique based on dual aerosols spaying of alginate based solution and CaCl2 as cross linking agent. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) has been also added to the alginate in order to change the physic-chemical properties (viscosity and permeability) of the microbeads. Calcium alginate and CMC are biopolymers that can be used for developing oral drug-delivery systems. These biopolymers have been reported to show a pH-dependent swelling behaviour. Calcium alginate and CMC have also been known to possess an excellent mucoadhesive property. The loaded microbeads have been characterized in terms of morphology, chemical composition and stability in different conditions mimicking the gastric environment. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of a continuous fabrication of alginate microbeads in a range of 50-70μm size, encapsulating L. kefiri as ac...
IEEE Sensors Journal, 2020
This paper shows the optical photoresponse in the IR-Vis-UV range of a AlN-based piezoelectric su... more This paper shows the optical photoresponse in the IR-Vis-UV range of a AlN-based piezoelectric surface acoustic wave (SAW) delay-line device. The piezoelectric aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film has been sputtered on both silicon rigid substrate and flexible polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrate. Both devices have been investigated in their electroacoustic response, by measuring the transfer function S21 and by laser Doppler vibrometer characterization. The silicon based SAW devices, stimulated by the IR-Vis-UV light, are strongly affected in the out-of-band insertion loss due to the photovoltaic effect. A mathematical model has been implemented to correlate the out-of-band loss with the material’s electrical admittance change. In contrast PEN based SAW devices, due to the polymeric nature of the substrate, did not show any variation in the out-of-band loss. Moreover, when exposed to UV light, a frequency downshift of the Rayleigh and Lamb resonances modes have been observed in all the devices, due screening of the photoinduced electrons in the AlN piezoelectric layer which induces an acoustic wave velocity reduction. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first photoresponse study exploiting SAW in the range IR-Vis-UV, suggesting a new detection mode of UV light by a flexible AlN based SAW device. Further development of these devices can lead to a new class of light sensors from UV to IR, based on remote SAW devices.
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2020
Abstract Polymeric based surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices represent one of the most interestin... more Abstract Polymeric based surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices represent one of the most interesting platform for the development of wireless passive sensors for IoT and smart packaging applications. An important feature to be addressed in order to develop a compact and conformable wireless SAW sensor is the increase of the working frequency which allows an easy antenna integration and miniaturization. In this work, we present a disposable polymeric SAW temperature sensor device working in the GHz range, based on aluminum nitride (AlN) and built on a 125 μm thick film of polyethylene naphthalate. The flexible device has been compared to the same SAW device fabricated onto silicon substrates. The polymeric based SAW device shows three operating wave modes corresponding to the Rayleigh, Love, and Lamb, highlighting that the Lamb mode exhibits a resonance frequency as high as 1.325 GHz, corresponding to a phase wave velocity of 10,600 m/s, an electromechanical coupling of 2.91 % and Q factor of 109. Temperature coefficient of frequency (TCF) values of 149, 109, 53 ppm/°C have been calculated for the Rayleigh, Love and Lamb waves, respectively. The different behavior of the three SAW modes let us envision the development of a multiple sensing platforms based on different modes in the same device (e.g. temperature, microbiological contamination, light exposure).
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Papers by Leonardo LAMANNA