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Fabric-substrated capacitive biopotential sensors enhanced by dielectric nanoparticles

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Abstract

Wearable biopotential sensing devices are essential to long-term and real-time monitoring of human health. Non-contact, capacitive sensing electrodes prevent potential skin irritations, and are thus beneficial for long-term monitoring. Existing capacitive electrodes are either connected to a separate control circuit via external wires or have limited sensing capacitances, which leads to low signal qualities. This study demonstrates a stretchable capacitive sensing device with integrated electrodes and control electronics, with enhanced signal qualities. The electrodes and the control electronics are fabricated on a common fabric substrate for breathability and strain-limiting protection. The stretchable electrodes are based on an island-bridge design with a stretchability as high as ∼ 100%, and an area ratio as high as ∼ 80%. By using a dielectric calcium copper titanate (CCTO) composite as the adhesive layer, the electrode capacitance can be increased, yielding an enhanced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the acquired biopotentials. This device offers a convenient and comfortable approach for long-term non-contact monitoring of biopotential signals.

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Acknowledgement

We thank Yutaka Imai and Yota Komoriya for their support to this project and S. Xiang for constructive feedback on the manuscript preparation. This material is based on research sponsored by Air Force Research Laboratory under agreement number FA8650-18-2-5402. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) or the U.S. Government. All bio-experiments were conducted with the approval of the Institutional Review Board of the University of California, San Diego.

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Author notes

  1. Xiangjun Chen, Xiaoxiang Gao, and Akihiro Nomoto contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Xiangjun Chen, Keren Shi, Hongjie Hu, Yue Gu, Xue Chen, Baiyan Qi, Sai Zhou & Sheng Xu

  2. Department of NanoEngineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Xiaoxiang Gao, Akihiro Nomoto, Muyang Lin, Yangzhi Zhu, Zhuohong Wu, Xinyu Wang, Hong Ding & Sheng Xu

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Sheng Xu

  4. Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Sheng Xu

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  1. Xiangjun Chen
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Correspondence to Sheng Xu.

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Chen, X., Gao, X., Nomoto, A. et al. Fabric-substrated capacitive biopotential sensors enhanced by dielectric nanoparticles. Nano Res. 14, 3248–3252 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3458-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3458-0

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