Courtesy of (Fort Worth, Texas)

It is a small, small world that continues to shrink. There is a relatively new and narrow field in engineering research called nanoelectromechanical systems. And thanks in part to a husband and wife research team, the University of Texas at Arlington is garnering world recognition in this field.

Dr. Donald Butler and wife Dr. Zeynep Celik-Butler, researchers at UT Arlington’s College of Engineering, envision a day when tiny implantable pressure sensors inside an artificial ‘skin’ will measure the pressure of amnionic fluid inside the uterus during pregnancy. Woven into the uniform of a combat soldier, the sensors might detect toxic chemicals. Worn by a diabetic—just under the skin—they could track insulin and glucose levels.

They call it Smart Skin, a simple name for the technical term “distributed flexible microsensor array.” Smart Skin is made of a flexible plastic and contains tiny sensors. Depending on the type of sensor used, the material can be used for various applications.

Smart Skin evolved from previous research projects begun by the Butlers on infrared detectors in 1994. The Army Research Office and the National Science Foundation funded the original research. In the beginning, the thermal detectors were placed on rigid plastic. Six years later, the researchers started putting sensors on surfaces that were flexible. Now, additional functions are placed on the sensors to make them “smart.”

The Butlers brought Smart Skin and a $300,000 three-year National Science Foundation research grant to UTA’s Nanofab Center in October 2002.

The beauty of Smart Skin is that the sensors are flexible and can be used just like an adhesive bandage or a small part of one. Smart Skin currently is being used by a company that manufacturers CPR mannequins to train nurses and emergency response personnel. Donald envisions robotic applications. “A NASA machine, for instance, could carefully track its surroundings as it moves across Mars or the moon,” he said. “Having pressure and optical sensors on them will make them smart in their environment. We have applications now where we can monitor the health of a machine to see how well it’s functioning. These could be used in defense.”

Zeynep said there are many biomedical applications for the future. “Smart Skin could be implanted for prosthetic devices to enable motion for people with disabilities, or implanted in the eye to measure pressure for patients with glaucoma,” she said.

The Butlers emphasized the importance of working with other disciplines and agree that one of the benefits of UTA is the strength in engineering and sciences. They also said they find UTA to be the ideal environment for their research because of the many high-tech companies for collaboration and obtaining contracts. “We are very lucky to do our research here,” Zeynep said. “Many of the defense companies are interested in our work. We are in the process of speaking with companies but, at this stage, we are not able to discuss which ones.”