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A flexible dry electrode based on APTES-anchored PDMS substrate for portable ECG acquisition system

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Abstract

We developed a simple and low-cost flexible dry electrode with micro domes by depositing metal film directly on (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES)-anchored polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate for portable electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition system. However, the adhesion between metal and PDMS was poor, and metal film on PDMS always exhibited wrinkles. To overcome these difficulties, before depositing Cu, PDMS substrate was treated by APTES aqueous solution. Then, we evaluated the metal film through the microscopic photographs, the surface roughness measurements and the adhesion tests. On the base of the deposition technique improvement, a PDMS-based dry electrode for ECG monitoring was fabricated. We studied the performance of the flexible dry electrode and the results showed the fabricated electrode produced good ECG signals with distinct P, QRS, and T waves. In addition, the fabricated flexible dry electrode with micro domes showed lower skin-contact impedance and could obtain ECG signals with higher SNR than the flat dry electrode.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Natural Science Foundation of PRC (No. 61175100 and No. 51275285), the Research Fund of Medicine and Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (No. YG2011ZD01) for National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51035005), 973 Program (2013CB329401).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Thin Film and Microfabrication of the Ministry of Education, Department of Micro/Nano Electronics, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Dongchuan Road 800, 200240, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Ying Meng, Zhenbo Li & Jiapin Chen

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  1. Ying Meng
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  2. Zhenbo Li
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  3. Jiapin Chen
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Correspondence to Jiapin Chen.

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Meng, Y., Li, Z. & Chen, J. A flexible dry electrode based on APTES-anchored PDMS substrate for portable ECG acquisition system. Microsyst Technol 22, 2027–2034 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2490-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-015-2490-y

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