Fully Printed Wearable Vital Sensor for Human Pulse Rate Monitoring using Ferroelectric Polymer

Abstract

The ability to monitor subtle changes in vital and arterial signals using flexible devices attached to the human skin can be valuable for the detection of various health conditions such as cardiovascular disease. Conventional Si device technologies are being utilised in traditional clinical systems; however, its fabrication is not easy owing to the difficulties in adapting to conventional processes. Here, we present the development of a fully printed, wearable, ferroelectric-polymer vital sensor for monitoring the human pulse wave/rate on the skin. This vital sensor is compact, thin, sufficiently flexible, and conforms to the skin while providing high pressure sensitivity, fast response time, superior operational stability, and excellent mechanical fatigue properties. Moreover, the vital sensor is connected to a communication amplifier circuit for monitoring the pulse waves with a wireless sensing system. This sensor system can realise the development of new healthcare devices for wearable sensor applications.