Abstract
Electronic tattoos (e-tattoos), also known as epidermal electronics, are ultra-thin and ultra-soft noninvasive but skin-conformable devices with capabilities including physiological sensing and transdermal stimulation and therapeutics. The fabrication of e-tattoos out of conventional inorganic electronic materials used to be tedious and expensive. Recently developed cut-and-paste method has significantly simplified the process and lowered the cost. However, existing cut-and-paste method entails a medical tape on which the electronic tattoo sensors should be pasted, which increases tattoo thickness and degrades its breathability. To address this problem, here we report a slightly modified cut-and-paste method to fabricate low-cost, open-mesh e-tattoos with a total thickness of just 1.5 μm. E-tattoos of such thinness can be directly pasted on human skin and conforms to natural skin texture. We demonstrate that this ultra-thin, tape-free e-tattoo can confidently measure electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and skin hydration. Heart rate and even respiratory rate can be extracted from the ECG signals. A special advantage of such ultra-thin e-tattoo is that it is capable of high-fidelity sensing with minimized motion artifacts under various body movements. Effects of perspiration are found to be insignificant due to the breathability of such e-tattoos.
Highlights
Noninvasive wearable devices mounted on skin, the largest organ of human body, provide a versatile means to acquire information about the body or to deliver stimulation and drugs to the body.They are believed to have the potential to revolutionize mobile health, assistive technology, athletic training, human machine interaction, and many other fields
Thin film Au is chosen as the electrode and resistance temperature detector (RTD) material for its biocompatibility, chemical inertness, as well as ductility
The Au/Cr/PET film was cut by a programmable mechanical cutter plotter (Silhouette Cameo, USA) to form serpentine-shaped seams according to an AutoCAD design imported into the Silhouette Studio® software (Fig. 1d and Fig. S1d)
Summary
Noninvasive wearable devices mounted on skin, the largest organ of human body, provide a versatile means to acquire information about the body or to deliver stimulation and drugs to the body. Low-cost, μm-thick, tape-free electronic tattoo Y Wang et al. In this paper, we report a cut-and-pasted e-tattoo that is only 1.5 μm thick and can be directly pasted on human skin like a temporary transfer tattoo. We report a cut-and-pasted e-tattoo that is only 1.5 μm thick and can be directly pasted on human skin like a temporary transfer tattoo This e-tattoo is tape-free and designed into an open-mesh filamentary structure, which makes it breathable and exhibit negligible stiffness.[35] It includes multiple sensors and can synchronously measure skin temperature, skin hydration, and electrocardiogram (ECG). Because of its open-mesh design, sweat does not accumulate between e-tattoo and skin, which helps minimize sweat artifacts
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