RFID Leader Smartrac has launched Sensor Patch, a passive UHF moisture-sensing inlay for healthcare applications. The technology, developed through a collaboration between Smartrac and sensor specialist RFMicron, hopes to help care providers better manage urinary incontinence and skin irritations with disposable moisture sensing inlays that can be attached to the outside of any diaper.

In industrial diaper production, the inlays can be placed invisibly between the diapers’ layers. Caregivers would then be equipped with mobile reading devices enabling them to remotely detect if an incontinence event had occurred within five feet. The cost of these inlays and the readers would be recouped quickly by reducing the amount of time allocated to patient toileting as well as increased patient quality of life.

Smartrac’s earlier generation RFID sensor device DogBone functions on cardbaord, plastics, stone and wood but the Sensor Patch, which works on textiles, pulps and nonwovens, opens up doors for the technology in new areas.

“Traditional sensors exploit changes in resistance to measure environmental variables, but this results in reduced tag read range due to power dissipated in the resistance,” says Peter Walendy, senior vice president, Intelligent Things Business Division at Smartrac Technology. “With the ability to use inductance of capacitance, our Smartrac sensor inlays effectively avoid read-range issues. Thus, they offer great performance in diverse and challenging circumstances and accurately detect and measure moisture levels in a wide array of environments and areas of applications—be it industrial production or geriatric care.”