Ana Claudia Arias (born 1973) is a Brazilian American physicist who is a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Her research considers printed electronic materials and their application in flexible electronics and wearable medical devices.

Early life and education

Arias was born in Londrina, PR, Brazil. She studied physics at the

Federal University of Paraná The Federal University of Paraná (, UFPR) is a public university headquartered in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. UFPR is considered to be one of the oldest universities in Brazil. UFPR ranks as 37th best university in Latin-America and it is among ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, where she earned her master's degree in 1997. Arias moved to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

as a graduate student, where she worked in the research group of

Richard Friend Sir Richard Henry Friend (born 18 January 1953) is a British physicist who was the Cavendish Professor of Physics at the University of Cambridge from 1995 until 2020 and is Tan Chin Tuan Centennial Professor at the National University of Singapo ...

. Her doctoral research involved investigations into phase-separation within conjugated polymer thin films used in solar cell and OLEDs. Friend and Arias filed several patents on printed electronic devices and materials.

Research and career

Arias worked as a postdoc in the Optoelectronics group at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, where she helped with the formation of the spin-off company

Plastic Logic Plastic Logic Germany develops and manufactures electrophoretic displays (EPD), based on organic thin-film transistor ( OTFT) technology, in Dresden, Germany. Originally a spin-off company from the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of ...

. At

Arias was responsible for the semiconductor group. Arias left Plastic Logic in 2003, and joined the research team at the

Palo Alto Research Center Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...

(PARC). At PARC, Arias was responsible for flexible and printed electronics. She worked on the fabrication of wearable sensors, including devices capable of preventing brain injuries in the battlefield. These devices worked by wirelessly monitoring of pressure and acoustic levels. In 2011 Arias joined the

as a Professor of Flexible and Printed Electronics, where she serves as Faculty Director of the Berkeley Wireless Research Center. At Berkeley, she started to develop sensing systems that look track a patient's vital signs, and provide instant feedback to healthcare professionals. As part of these efforts, she created a wearable system for

magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and ...

(MRI) scanning of babies. Conventional MRI systems make use of hard, bulky metal radio frequency coils to receive the MRI signals. The coils are heavier than the babies being scanned, which means that babies must be anaesthetised to obtain clear images. In an attempt to mitigate this, Arias created a flexible, lightweight

radiofrequency coil Radiofrequency coils (RF coils) are the receivers, and sometimes also the transmitters, of radiofrequency (RF) signals in equipment used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The MR signal in MRI is produced by the process of resonance, which is th ...

that could be embedded within a swaddle blanket. The flexible MRI receivers entered clinical trials in 2016. Arias worked with

Cambridge Display Technology Cambridge Display Technology (CDT) is a technology company with head office in Godmanchester, England. It was the first company spun out of the University of Cambridge ever to go public. It was subsequently acquired by Sumitomo Chemical for about ...

to develop lightweight skin-like pulse oximeters. The oximeters make use of carbon-based (organic) semiconductors, which allow for the fabrication of low-cost electronic devices on flexible substrates. The sensor makes use of an array of red and near-infrared

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

s and photodetectors to detect blood-oxygen levels. Beyond the measurement of blood oxygen, Arias has developed a multi-sensor platform capable of

photoplethysmography A photoplethysmogram (PPG) is an optically obtained plethysmogram that can be used to detect blood volume changes in the microvascular bed of tissue. A PPG is often obtained by using a pulse oximeter which illuminates the skin and measures cha ...

and biomarker detection from human sweat. These sensing platforms allow insight into the physiological state of the human body. The sweat sensors developed by Arias consist of lactate, sodium and ammonium sensors. Arias has also investigated materials and devices that can harvest and store energy.

Awards and honours

* 2017 FlexTech R&D Achievement Award * 2025 class of

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

Select publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arias, Ana Claudia 1973 births Living people Scientists from Palo Alto, California Alumni of the University of Cambridge Federal University of Paraná alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty American women physicists American physicists 21st-century American women scientists Fellows of the IEEE