Design strategies for skin-interfaced sensors

Abstract

Skin-interfaced sensors are gaining significant attention for their convenience in health monitoring. However, the complexity of the skin, including curve surface, wrinkles, low modulus, cuticle renewal and even secretions, causes a lot of difficulties in the design of skin-interfaced sensors. A poor interface between the skin and the skin-interfaced sensor can seriously degrade the quality and stability of the sensed signal, and can even cause skin irritation and allergies. Thus, a compatible, effective, and stable skin−sensor interface is critical to skin-interfaced sensors for high quality bio-signal sensing. In order to have a better design of the skin-interfaced sensors, the properties of human skin, including the structure, receptors and secretions of the skin, are summarized. These secretions are emphasized because they may seriously worsen the skin−sensor interface and causes distortion of the sensed bio-signals. This review focuses on the recent advances in the design strategies of skin-interfaced sensors, including mechanical characteristics, adhesive characteristics, breathability, biocompatibility and waterproof. Finally, the key challenges and future prospects of skin-interfaced sensors are outlined.