CMOS skin sensor for mobile skin diagnosis using an electronic cotton pad

Abstract

This paper presents a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) skin sensor for detecting hydration, sebum, and ultraviolet (UV) protection. This sensor employs pixels comprising interdigitated capacitors (IDCs) for detecting hydration and a 30 × 24 photodiode (PD) array for detecting UV protection and sebum. The 4 × 8 pixels with IDCs over the PDs are used for area efficiency; they afford reliable detection regardless of the skin contact area and a high sensitivity, which is achieved via pixel merging. For the readout of both IDCs and PDs, a column-parallel multiple-sampling analog front-end and a 9b successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter are integrated. To detect UV protection under different wavelengths of UVA and UVB, we implement the spatiotemporal delta readout of the PDs. Furthermore, a fully characterized, proof-of-concept prototype chip is fabricated using a 110-nm CMOS process. Compared with conventional skin sensors, the proposed sensor exhibits higher sensitivities of 0.25%/min and 2.32%/mL in detecting dehydration rate and sebum levels, respectively. Moreover, the sensor can detect UV protection under UVA and UVB wavelengths. Owing to its core size of 2.32 × 4.65 mm2, the proposed sensor can potentially be integrated into cotton pads for mobile skin diagnosis.