Air-Permeable Waterproofing Stretchable Electrodes for Healthcare Devices

Ubiquitous healthcare solutions that monitor the vital signs during daily activities pose great significance in advancing personalized predictive health management, as the continuous lifelog data is imperative for identifying disease state progression. Recently, significant advances have been made with regard to the stretchable electrodes for healthcare monitoring, especially in the aspects of large deformability during repeated mechanical motions, air breathability to prevent the dermatitis problems, and the low contact impedance without using the electrolyte gel. However, there has been limited number of skin-mounted or implantable electrodes which allows continuous heart monitoring during full-day activities such as showering, sweating, running in dry or wet weather conditions, and sleeping. This is because a several indispensable technological challenges have not yet been addressed simultaneously, which includes signal consistency regardless of weather and sweat, rapid sweat permeation but waterproofing, a simple mechanically compliant device structure, and long-term (several days) usability. This presentation talks the air-permeable waterproofing stretchable electrodes for on-skin uses and implantable devices for monitoring the body signals during various daily activities such as relaxing, sweaty exercise, showering, and sleeping.