ECG monitoring garment using conductive carbon paste for reduced motion artifacts

Abstract

The heart is a fundamental organ of the human circulatory system and the continuous measurement of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals is of great importance for pre-detection of heart diseases. Dry electrodes that do not require electrolyte gel have been developed for wearable ECG monitoring applications. However, this kind of electrode often introduces motion artifacts because of the high contact impedance between the electrode and skin. We propose a wearable ECG monitoring garment that employs electrodes made of conductive carbon-based paste. This paste is directly applied to the skin and after drying for 5 min, it forms a patch electrode that is detachable and flexible. The contact impedance between the patch electrode and the skin is very low because the paste covers the skin in a conformal manner. The experimental results show that the contact area of the carbon-based paste on the skin replica is almost 100%. At frequencies under 10 Hz, the contact impedance of the patch electrode is of 70.0 kω, much lower than the typical 118.7 kω impedance of a Ag/AgCl electrode. We also demonstrate that the ECG signals measured using the custom-designed garment and the patch electrodes are very stable even during actions such as walking and running.