Skin-Attachable Sensors for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

With the growing concern about human health issues, especially during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for personalized healthcare regarding disease prevention and recovery is increasing. However, tremendous challenges lie in both limited public medical resources and costly medical diagnosis approaches. Recently, skin-attachable sensors have emerged as promising health monitoring platforms to overcome such difficulties. Owing to the advantages of good comfort and high signal-to-noise ratio, skin-attachable sensors enable household, real-time, and long-term detection of weak physiological signals to efficiently and accurately monitor human motion, heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, lung and heart sound, glucose, and biomarkers in biomedical applications. To further improve the integration level of biomedical skin-attachable sensors, efforts have been made in combining multiple sensing techniques with elaborate structural designs. This review summarizes the recent advances in different functional skin-attachable sensors, which monitor physical and chemical indicators of the human body. The advantages, shortcomings, and integration strategies of different mechanisms are presented. Specially, we highlight sensors monitoring pulmonary function such as respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation for their potential usage in the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the future development of skin-attachable sensors is envisioned.

3D and 4D assembly of functional structures using shape-morphing materials for biological applications

“…The existing array of biomimetic sensors, such as wearable health gadgets (e.g., smart watches fitness monitors) and dermal patches, often possess a rigid nature, failing to seamlessly conform to the skin’s contours. This leads to discomfort during extended use and susceptibility to extraneous signal interference ( Hua et al, 2022 ). Engineered to imitate or reproduce functions or traits found within the human body, biomimetic sensors leverage biological concepts to amplify their sensing prowess.…”