Hairy-Skin-Adaptive Viscoelastic Dry Electrodes for Long-Term Electrophysiological Monitoring.

Abstract

Long-term epidermal electrophysiological (EP) monitoring is crucial for disease diagnosis and human-machine synergy. The human skin is covered with hair that grows at an average rate of 0.3mm per day. This impedes a stable contact between the skin and dry epidermal electrodes, resulting in motion artifacts during ultralong-term EP monitoring. Therefore, accurate and high-quality EP signal detection remains challenging. To address this issue, a new solution-the hairy-skin-adaptive viscoelastic dry electrode (VDE) is reported. This innovative technology is capable of bypassing hair and filling into the skin wrinkles, leading to long-lasting and stable interface impedance. The VDE maintains a stable interface impedance for a remarkable period of 48 days and 100 cycles. The VDE is highly effective in shielding against hair disturbances in electrocardiography (ECG) monitoring, even during intense chest expansion, and in electromyography (EMG) monitoring during large strain. Furthermore, the VDE is easily attachable to the skull without requiring any electroencephalogram (EEG) cap or bandage, making it an ideal solution for EEG monitoring. This work represents a substantial breakthrough in the field of EP monitoring, providing a solution for the previously challenging issue of monitoring human EP signals on hairy skin.