A Paper-Based Flexible Tactile Sensor Array for Low-Cost Wearable Human Health Monitoring

• Published in: Journal of microelectromechanical systems Vol. 29; no. 5; pp. 825 - 831
• Main Authors: Luo, Weijie, Sharma, Vikas, Young, Darrin J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: atrial fibrillation (AFib); Biomedical monitoring; Blood pressure; blood pressure (BP) pulse; capacitive sensor; Electrodes; Fibrillation; flexible sensor; Formability; Heart rate; human health monitoring; Low cost; Monitoring; paper substrate; paper-based sensor; PDMS; Sensitivity; sensor array; Sensor arrays; Sensors; Substrates; tactile sensor; Tactile sensors (robotics); Telemedicine; Waveforms; Wearable sensor; Wearable technology
• ISSN: 1057-7157; 1941-0158
• DOI: 10.1109/JMEMS.2020.3011498

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization results of a paper-based, low-cost, easy-to-use, comfortable and wearable tactile sensor array for human health monitoring applications. Paper substrate and spray-deposited metallic electrodes and traces are employed to achieve a low fabrication cost. Capacitive sensing scheme employing a deformable triangular PDMS sensing membrane is chosen due to its high sensitivity and zero DC power dissipation. Trade-offs among different sensor array designs are investigated to achieve an optimal design, which consists of a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1\times 5 </tex-math></inline-formula> sensor array occupying an area of 10 mm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\times10 </tex-math></inline-formula> mm. Each sensor in the array achieves a nominal capacitance value and sensitivity of approximately 1 pF and 30 fF/mmHg, respectively. Fabricated sensor array can be comfortably attached to an individual's temporal region and ankle area to monitor real-time blood pressure (BP) pulse waveform with high fidelity, from which heart rate and heart rate variability information can be accurately obtained. In addition, the prototype sensor array demonstrates its capability of detecting atrial fibrillation (AFib) from BP pulse waveform measured from an AFib patient. [2020-0179]