Abstract
There are now numerous emerging flexible and wearable sensing technologies that can perform a myriad of physical and physiological measurements. Rapid advances in developing and implementing such sensors in the last several years have demonstrated the growing significance and potential utility of this unique class of sensing platforms. Applications include wearable consumer electronics, soft robotics, medical prosthetics, electronic skin, and health monitoring. In this review, we provide a state-of-the-art overview of the emerging flexible and wearable sensing platforms for healthcare and biomedical applications. We first introduce the selection of flexible and stretchable materials and the fabrication of sensors based on these materials. We then compare the different solid-state and liquid-state physical sensing platforms and examine the mechanical deformation-based working mechanisms of these sensors. We also highlight some of the exciting applications of flexible and wearable physical sensors in emerging healthcare and biomedical applications, in particular for artificial electronic skins, physiological health monitoring and assessment, and therapeutic and drug delivery. Finally, we conclude this review by offering some insight into the challenges and opportunities facing this field.
Highlights
Physical sensing platforms that detect and monitor the surroundings and communicate with the acquired physical data, such as pressure, shear, strain, torsion, temperature, and humidity, form the fundamental building blocks of a multitude of advanced applications, including wearable consumer electronics[1,2,3], soft robotics[4,5,6], smart medical prosthetics and electronic skins[7,8,9], and real-time healthcare monitoring[10,11]
Recent years have seen the advent of a particular class of physical sensing devices, that is, lightweight, flexible, and wearable physical sensors with distinct functionalities, notably with high degrees of deformability and conformability, long-term stability, increased sensitivity, and excellent optical transparency[12,13,14,15]
We offer a broad overview of the flexible and wearable physical sensing platforms emerging for healthcare and biomedical applications in the last 5 years (Figure 2)
Summary
Physical sensing platforms that detect and monitor the surroundings and communicate with the acquired physical data, such as pressure, shear, strain, torsion, temperature, and humidity, form the fundamental building blocks of a multitude of advanced applications, including wearable consumer electronics[1,2,3], soft robotics[4,5,6], smart medical prosthetics and electronic skins[7,8,9], and real-time healthcare monitoring[10,11]. Chen et al.[101] demonstrated soft, stretchable, and breathable skin-inspired biocompatible temperature sensors based on the integration of a porous semipermeable PU film as the substrate and a temperature-sensitive patterned Au film as the sensing component (Figure 3d).
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