Cohesive dry ECG sensor using silver nanowires and PDMS tuned for adhesion

Abstract

A technique is exploited to develop a dry ECG sensor using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) with enhanced adhesion to skin. The sensor consists of silver nanowires (AgNWs) embedded in PDMS. The adhesive solution presented is a novel technique which combines using high‐ratio 25:1 PDMS selectively deposited in a thin layer on the surface of a sensor body that is made from 15:1 PDMS. With this adhesive mechanism, we demonstrate a cohesive ECG sensor which can adhere to a subject without the use of additional sticky adhesives and that is compatible with current ECG technology. PDMS is residue free and highly biocompatible meaning this is a solution suitable for long‐term wear. We demonstrate that our sensor can be filtered to similar quality of a traditional ECG sensor, and further show that our sensors stay in place for more than 24 hr and it can adhere to skin with an average maximum force of about 1.09 N.