Abstract
Laser-direct writing (LDW) and magneto-rheological drawing lithography (MRDL) have been proposed for the fabrication of a flexible microneedle array electrode (MAE) for wearable bio-signal monitoring. Conductive patterns were directly written onto the flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by LDW. The microneedle array was rapidly drawn and formed from the droplets of curable magnetorheological fluid with the assistance of an external magnetic field by MRDL. A flexible MAE can maintain a stable contact interface with curved human skin due to the flexibility of the PET substrate. Compared with Ag/AgCl electrodes and flexible dry electrodes (FDE), the electrode–skin interface impedance of flexible MAE was the minimum even after a 50-cycle bending test. Flexible MAE can record electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG) and static electrocardiography (ECG) signals with good fidelity. The main features of the dynamic ECG signal recorded by flexible MAE are the most distinguishable with the least moving artifacts. Flexible MAE is an attractive candidate electrode for wearable bio-signal monitoring.
Highlights
Home health care management has attracted increasing interest in the last decades due to the rapid growth of the ageing population and the prevalence of chronic diseases
We introduced a simple process for fabricating a flexible microneedle array electrode (MAE) for wearable bio-signal recording
The flexible MAE was fabricated as the microneedle surface was sputter coated with Ti/Au films
Summary
Home health care management has attracted increasing interest in the last decades due to the rapid growth of the ageing population and the prevalence of chronic diseases. Various methods have been employed to fabricate microneedle arrays, including etching and lithography [4,21,22,23,24,25], laser machining [26,27,28], micro-molding [29,30,31], 3D printing [32], thermal drawing [33], and magnetization-induced self-assembly [34,35], but most of microneedle arrays were fabricated on the rigid substrates These techniques cannot directly fabricate microneedle arrays on a flexible substrate. The microneedle array was fabricated by UV maskless lithography, which required expensive and sophisticated equipment located in clean rooms These flexible MAEs exhibited good bio-signal recording performance, but the fabrication processes were complex, resulting in a high cost. The flexible MAE monitoring performance of the electrode–skin interface impedance (EII) before and after a bending test, electromyography (EMG), electroencephalography (EEG), and electrocardiography (ECG) signals are evaluated in comparison to Ag/AgCl electrodes and flexible dry electrodes (FDE)
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