Published in

The 12th IEEE International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications and Services

DOI: 10.1109/health.2010.5556575

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Lightweight portable sensors for health care

Proceedings article published in 2010 by I. G. Trindade, J. Lucas, R. Miguel, P. Alpuim ORCID, M. Carvalho, N. M. Garcia
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

In this article, textile electrodes and semiconductor thin film piezoresistive sensors on plastic substrates were manufactured and fabricated with CMOS processes, respectively. An armband made of plain weave fabric, integrating embroidery textile electrodes of stainless steel (SS) and elastics to conform to human forearms were manufactured. The textile electrodes with an area of 1cm2 were made of two stitching layers for ease of manufacture and electrode robustness and connected through snap fasteners and SS/cotton threads to a signal processing electronic module. Piezoresistive sensors, consisting of n-type hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films patterned into rectangular bars and having metallic thin leads connecting the sensor to large pads were fabricated on 25μm thick flexible (polyimide) substrates. The textile and thin film piezoresistive sensors were connected to a small lightweight signal processing electronic module of a wireless portable unit for real-time monitoring and recording of the sensors signals. Surface electromyography signals of the forearms of a volunteer wearing the armband with textile electrodes exhibit amplitudes and baseline noise levels comparable to those obtained with standard Ag/AgCl electrodes. The piezoresistive sensor on plastic substrate was stuck with grease to the neck of a volunteer and small front/back neck movement monitored and recorded.