Recent advances in soft sensors and flexible electronics offer various applications in detecting physical, electrical, and chemical signals. However, there are still technical barriers in current mechanical, electrical, and material properties for enhanced signal sensing. When measuring signals from the human skin, minimizing the skin‐sensor contact impedance is still challenging while maximizing sensitivity through optimized materials and soft electronics. Here, this review summarizes recent advances in materials, manufacturing, and integration technologies to develop ultrathin soft sensors for monitoring various human physiological signals. The enhancements in soft and compliant structures and mechanical properties are critical to making reliable wearable electronic systems. This article shares the details of soft sensors, integration processes, manufacturing methods, and their applications to target physical, electrical, and chemical signals. In addition, the limitations and current trends in developing multifunctional sensors, self‐powered devices, and integration with external stimuli systems are discussed.
Recent advances in flexible materials, nanomanufacturing, and system integration have provided a great opportunity to develop wearable flexible hybrid electronics for human healthcare, diagnostics, and therapeutics. However, existing medical devices still rely on rigid electronics with many wires and separate components, which hinders wireless, comfortable, continuous monitoring of health‐related human motions. Advanced materials and system integration technologies are introduced that enable soft, active wireless, thin‐film bioelectronics. This low‐modulus, highly flexible wearable electronic system incorporates a nanomembrane wireless circuit and functional chip components enclosed by a soft elastomeric membrane. It can be gently and seamlessly mounted on the skin, while offering comfortable, highly sensitive and accurate detection of head movements. The wireless, skin‐like bioelectronic system (SKINTRONICS) is utilized for quantitative diagnostics of cervical dystonia (CD), which is characterized by involuntary abnormal head postures and repetitive head movements, sometimes with neck muscle pain. A set of analytical and experimental studies shows a soft system packaging, hard–soft materials integration, and quantitative assessment of physiological signals detected by the SKINTRONICS. In vivo demonstration, involving 10 human subjects, finds the device feasible for use in CD measurement.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10459702
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Materials Technologies
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 2365-709X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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