iFlexis - Integrated Flexible Photonic Sensor System

The final integrated i-FLEXIS system will be the core key-enabling technology for two different test vehicles demonstrators (HDsensor and IDtag) that will be designed for industrial production, taking special care to optimize in this sense the device layout and the fabrication process.

A dedicated high end tag platform will be designed and implemented to be used as a permanent Identification bag tag for each piece of airline luggage, that is supposed to be X-ray screened at airports prior to loading into aircrafts. The Tag will integrate some new systems and functionalities.
The state-of-the-art in Identification Tags developed by TAGSYS includes an existing passive RFID luggage tag with only temperature sensing capability, directly integrated at the RFID chip level.
The key innovation brought about in i-FLEXIS for TAGSYS is to create a new technology brick for RF energy harvesting which will power supply the whole tag platform. The major issues will have to be tackled and overcome are : i) the overall RF energy harvester efficiency, that has to grant proper power supply to the X-ray sensor; ii) the co-existence of 2 RF components in close proximity, the RFID chip and the RF energy harvester. Moreover, innovative integration engineering will be required to design the whole tag platform, mainly low power microcontroller firmware, to achieve optimal integration of the XRay sensor and of a small e-paper logo (XRay QC stamp).
In the end, a dedicated high end tag platform will be designed and implemented to be used as a permanent Identification bag tag for each piece of airline luggage, that is supposed to be X-ray screened at airports prior to loading into aircrafts; which is a major improvement in terms of security.

Thanks to the innovative and peculiar properties of the i-FLEXIS system, mainly the low-cost, low weight, flexibility, and low power consumption coupled to an efficient X-ray sensing process, various novel medical applications will be implemented, opening new markets:

1. A new generation of Health Radiation Dosimeter will be produced consisting in a large area, low-cost, thin and conformable system that can be positioned directly on the area to be examined by X-ray, allowing to directly measure the X-ray dose received by the patient on the exact location where the Xray beam will enter the skin. A real time alert signal will prevent excess dose exposures. As a future route of exploitation, this operators manipulating the X-rays, as a portable battery-operated system.

2. A novel apparatus will be implemented capable of measuring the bone mineral density, generally measured with a dual energy X-ray absorbtionmetry test (usually referred to as a DEXA scan) This low cost, portable bone density analysis instrument will be integrated in form of a bracelet, similar in shape to a blood pressure apparatus. It works by directly measuring both the in- and out- X-ray dose (the system consists of 2 i-FLEXIS systems connected) with no need for a correction of the non-uniformity of the beam. Thanks to its properties it could thus be adopted by "family" doctors.