Progress and challenges in fabrication of wearable sensors for health monitoring

Abstract

Rapid development in sensor technology, has led to fabrication of high-performance wearable sensors with application in human health monitoring. As human health is an utmost importance issue, various high-tech equipment has been developed to use in continuous health monitoring. The favorable properties of wearable sensors, make them an appropriate choice in medical applications. In this context, wearable sensors designed, produced and utilized in human health care systems which can facilitate diseases diagnosis. Depend on the type of sensor, a specific parameter such as heart beat, pressure, and temperature can be monitored and measured. This review attempts to summarize the progress and challenges in fabrication of wearable sensors for human health monitoring. In this context, applications of wearable sensors are divided into (a) biophysical tracking, (b) biochemical monitoring, and (c) detection of real-time data. Moreover, details of medical wearable sensors are outlined. In this regard, types of sensors, their materials and fabrication processes are explained. Finally, performance and current challenges in this field are briefly discussed. The documented analysis and discussion in this paper show the advantages and limitations in this field, and also highlight needs for next researches. This review confirmed that the emergence of wearable sensors has opened new horizons for human health monitoring.