Name: conformable wearable electrodes: from fabrication to electrophysiological assessment
Uploaded: 2022-07-22T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment at JoVE.com

This work was supported by the French National Research Agency through the ANR JCJC OrgTex project (ANR-17-CE19-0010). It has also received funding from the European Union&#39;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 813863. E.I. wishes to thank the CMP cleanroom staff at the Centre Microelectronics in Provence for their technical support during the development of the project.

NOTE: Experiments involving human subjects did not involve the collection of identifiable private information related to the individual&#39;s health status and are only used here for technological demonstration. Data were averaged over three different subjects. The electrophysiological recordings were extracted from previously published data6,21.
1. Inkjet-printed PEDOT:PSS electrode fabrication
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<ol>
	<li>Kim, J., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Noninvasive+alcohol+monitoring+using+a+wearable+tattoo-based+iontophoretic-biosensing+system.">Noninvasive alcohol monitoring using a wearable tattoo-based iontophoretic-biosensing system.</a> ACS Sensors. 1 (8), 1011-1019 (2016).</li><li>Ha, M., Lim, S., Ko, H. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Wearable+and+flexible+sensors+for+user-interactive+health-monitoring+devices.">Wearable and flexible sensors for user-interactive health-monitoring devices.</a> Journal of Materials Chemistry B. 6 (24), 4043-4064 (2018).</li><li>Kim, D. 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This paper describes an easy and scalable process to fabricate wearable electrodes and demonstrates a method for recording electrophysiological biosignals. It uses three examples of wearable substrates, such as tattoo, textile, and thin films. It introduces how to build a sensor on these substrates and characterize its performance prior to its application. To make the electrodes here, we employed PEDOT:PSS, a conductive polymer that stands out from metal-based conductors due to its cost-effectiveness, versatile processab...

Noninvasive biopotential recording is performed through skin-contact electrodes, providing a vast amount of data on the physiological status of the human body in fitness and healthcare1. Novel types of wearable biomonitoring devices have been developed from the latest technological advances in electronics through the downscaling of integrated controlling and communicating components to portable dimensions. Smart monitoring devices pervade the market daily, offering multiple monitoring capabilities with the ultimate goal of providing sufficient physiological content to enable medical diagnostics2. Therefore, safe, reliable, and robust interfaces with the human body present critical challenges in the development of legitimate wearable technologies for healthcare. Tattoo and textile electrodes have recently appeared as reliable and stable interfaces perceived as innovative, comfortable devices for wearable biosensing3,4,5.
Tattoo sensors are dry and thin interfaces that, owing to their low thickness (~1 &#181;m), ensure adhesive-free, conformable skin contact. They are based on a commercially available tattoo paper kit composed of a layered structure, which allows the release of an ultrathin polymeric layer on the skin6. The layered structure also allows for easy handling of the thin polymeric layer during the sensor&#39;s fabrication process and its transfer to the skin. The final electrode is fully conformable and almost imperceptible to the wearer. Textile sensors are electronic devices obtained from fabric functionalization with electroactive materials7. They are mainly integrated or simply sewed into clothes to ensure the user&#39;s comfort due to their softness, breathability, and evident affinity with garments. For almost a decade, textile and tattoo electrodes have been assessed in surface electrophysiological recordings3,8,9, showing good results both in wearability and signal quality recordings and reporting high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in short- and long-term evaluations. They are also conceived as a potential platform for wearable biochemical sweat analysis1,10.
The growing interest in tattoo, textile, and, in general, flexible thin film technologies (e.g., those made of plastic foils such as parylene or different elastomers) is mainly promoted by the compatibility with low-cost and scalable fabrication methods. Screen printing, inkjet printing, direct patterning, dip coating, and stamp transfer have been successfully adopted to produce such kinds of electronic interfaces11. Among these, inkjet printing is the most advanced digital and fast prototyping technique. It is mainly applied to the patterning of conductive inks in a non-contact, additive fashion under ambient conditions and on a large variety of substrates12. Although multiple wearable sensors have been fabricated through noble metal ink patterning13, metal films are brittle and undergo cracking when mechanically stressed. Different research groups have adopted different strategies to endow metals with the property of mechanical compatibility with skin. These strategies include reducing the film thickness and using serpentine designs or wrinkled and prestretched substrates14,15,16. Soft and intrinsically flexible conductive materials, such as conductive polymers, found their application in flexible bioelectronic devices. Their polymeric flexibility is combined with electric and ionic conductivity. PEDOT:PSS is the most used conductive polymer in bioelectronics. It is characterized by softness, biocompatibility, sustainability, and printing processability17, which make it compatible with the widespread production of biomedical devices.
Devices, such as planar electrodes connected to an acquisition system, allow the recording of biopotentials in health monitoring. Human body biopotentials are electrical signals generated by electrogenic cells that propagate through the body up to the skin surface. According to where the electrodes are placed, it is possible to acquire data related to the electrical activity of the brain (EEG), muscles (EMG), heart (ECG), and skin conductivity (e.g., bioimpedance or electrodermal activity, EDA). The quality of the data is then assessed to evaluate the usability of the electrodes in clinical applications. A high SNR defines their performance18, which is typically compared with state-of-the-art Ag/AgCl electrode recordings. Although the Ag/AgCl electrodes also have high SNR, they lack long-term operationality and conformable wearability. High-quality biosignal recordings provide insights into human health status related to a particular organ&#39;s function. Thus, these benefits of comfortable tattoo or textile interfaces indicate their promise for long-term applications that can enable real-life mobile health monitoring and pave the way for the development of telemedicine19.
This paper reports how to fabricate and assess tattoo and textile electrodes in health biomonitoring. After its fabrication, a novel electrode must be characterized. Typically, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is adopted to study the electrical performance of the electrode with respect to a target interface (e.g., skin) in terms of the transfer function. EIS is used to compare the impedance characteristics of multiple electrodes and perform tests under different conditions (e.g., varying the electrode design or studying long-term responses). This paper shows the recording of surface biosignals through an easy setup and reports a user-friendly method to record different types of biosignals applicable to any novel fabricated electrode that needs to be validated for cutaneous biopotential recordings.

<table border="1" fo:keep-together.within-page="1" fo:keep-with-next.within-page="always">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>Biosignalplux - Plux wireless device for electrophysiological recordings</td>
			<td>PLUX Wireless Biosignals S.A</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>EEG, ECG, EMG, EDA sensors</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Covidien Kendal Disposable electrodes, medical grade disposable electrodes (Pregelled, 24 mm)</td>
			<td>Covidien / Kendal (formally Tyco) ARBO electrodes</td>
			<td>H124SG</td>
			<td>Commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes for electrophysiology</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Dimatix inkjet printer</td>
			<td>Fujifilm</td>
			<td>DMP 2800</td>
			<td>Inkjet printer</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Laser Cutter</td>
			<td>Universal Laser Systems</td>
			<td>VLS 3.50, 50 W</td>
			<td>Laser cutter to cut the glue sheet for tattoo electrodes fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>NOVA</td>
			<td>Metrohm Autolab</td>
			<td>NOVA 2.1</td>
			<td>Electrochemistry software to control Autolab instruments</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>OpenSignals</td>
			<td>2020 PLUX wireless biosignals, S.A.</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Software suite for real-time biosignals visualisation, capable of direct interaction with PLUX devices</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>PEDOT:PSS inkjet printable ink</td>
			<td>Heraeus Deutschland GmbH &#38; Co. KG</td>
			<td>CLEVIOS Pjet 700</td>
			<td></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polyethylene naphthalene (PEN) foil</td>
			<td>&#160;Goodfellow</td>
			<td>thickness 1.3 &#956;m</td>
			<td>Used for tattoo electrodes interconnection fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Polyimide tape</td>
			<td>3M</td>
			<td>Kapton tape by 3 M, thickness 50 &#956;m</td>
			<td>Used for tattoo electrodes interconnection fabrication</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Potentiostat</td>
			<td>Metrohm Autolab</td>
			<td>Autolab potentiostat B.V.</td>
			<td>Used for EIS measurements</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Silhouette temporary tattoo paper kit</td>
			<td>Silhouette Americ, Inc, US</td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Substrate for tattoo-based electrodes</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>Wowen textile 100% cotton and commercially available pantyhose</td>
			<td></td>
			<td></td>
			<td>Substrate for textile-based electrodes</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

conformable wearable electrodes: from fabrication to electrophysiological assessment

Wearable electronic devices are becoming key players in monitoring the body signals predominantly altered during physical activity tracking. Considering the growing interest in telemedicine and personalized care driven by the rise of the Internet of Things era, wearable sensors have expanded their field of application into healthcare. To ensure the collection of clinically relevant data, these devices need to establish conformable interfaces with the human body to provide high-signal-quality recordings and long-term operation. To this end, this paper presents a method to easily fabricate conformable thin tattoo- and soft textile-based sensors for their application as wearable organic electronic devices in a broad spectrum of surface electrophysiological recordings. 
The sensors are developed through a cost-effective and scalable process of cutaneous electrode patterning using poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), the most popular conductive polymer in bioelectronics, on off-the-shelf, wearable substrates. This paper presents key steps in electrode characterization through impedance spectroscopy to investigate their performance in signal transduction when coupled with the skin. Comparative studies are required to position the performance of novel sensors with respect to the clinical gold standard. To validate the fabricated sensors' performance, this protocol shows how to perform various biosignal recordings from different configurations through a user-friendly and portable electronic setup in a laboratory environment. This methods paper will allow multiple experimental initiatives to advance the current state of the art in wearable sensors for human body health monitoring.

This paper shows the fabrication of comfortable skin-contact electrodes by inkjet printing and a method to characterize them and perform electrophysiology recordings. We reported the fabrication steps of PEDOT:PSS inkjet printing directly on different substrates, such as fabric (Figure 1A), PEN (Figure 1B), and tattoo paper (Figure 1C,D) for reference. The proposed designs in protocol step 1.2.1. and step 1.3.1.5. d...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment at JoVE.com

Conformable Wearable Electrodes: From Fabrication to Electrophysiological Assessment

Two recent technologies-tattoo and textiles-have demonstrated promising results in cutaneous sensing. Here, we present the fabrication and evaluation methods of tattoo and textile electrodes for cutaneous electrophysiological sensing. These electronic interfaces made of conductive polymers outperform the existing standards in terms of comfort and sensitivity.

Wearable electronic devices are becoming key players in monitoring the body signals predominantly altered during physical activity tracking. Considering ...

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Organs-on-chips, in vitro models involving the culture of (human) tissues inside microfluidic devices, are rapidly emerging and promise to provide useful ...

Fabrication of Decellularized Cartilage-derived Matrix Scaffolds

Osteochondral defects lack sufficient intrinsic repair capacity to regenerate functionally sound bone and cartilage tissue. To this extent, cartilage ...

Single-Cell Optical Action Potential Measurement in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiomyocytes

Conventional intracellular microelectrode techniques to quantify cardiomyocyte electrophysiology are extremely complex, labor intensive, and typically ...

Fibroblast Derived Human Engineered Connective Tissue for Screening Applications

Fibroblasts are phenotypically highly dynamic cells, which quickly transdifferentiate into myofibroblasts in response to biochemical and biomechanical ...

Fabrication and Characterization of Layer-By-Layer Janus Base Nano-Matrix to Promote Cartilage Regeneration

Various biomaterial scaffolds have been developed to guide cell adhesion and proliferation in hopes to promote specific functions for in vitro and in vivo ...

Setup of Consumer Wearable Devices for Exposure and Health Monitoring in Population Studies

Wearable sensors, which are often embedded in commercial smartwatches, allow for continuous and non-invasive health measurements and exposure assessments ...