Application of Magnetic Phase Transition for a Novel Wireless Sensor Device for Body Temperature

Abstract

The recent several years of the global pandemic have brought attention to a societal need for large-scale monitoring and managing of human information concerning public health. One prominent way in which this is accomplished is by installing body temperature sensors, usually thermographic cameras, at the entrance of locations with a great number of people are expected to enter and exit. However, there are concerns with such a method regarding not only the accuracy and precision of the data but also the energy usage. The authors have proposed a novel body temperature sensor device that can potentially become a solution to the aforementioned concerns with the application of magnetic phase transitions. The proposed device utilizes the temperature-dependent magnetization properties and Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction to measure temperature in the form of electromotive force. Here, an elementary investigation of the magnetic properties surrounding temperature change is done using gadolinium to assess the potential of the proposed body temperature device. The results demonstrate that there is a material-specific temperature range in which there is a clear linear relationship between temperature and magnetization change, suggesting that this region indeed has the potential for operation as a novel temperature sensor.