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Accurate measurement and monitoring of respiration is vital in patients affected by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus -2 (SARS-CoV-2). Patients with severe chronic diseases and pneumonia need continuous respiration monitoring and oxygenation support. Existing respiratory sensing techniques require direct contact with the human body along with expensive and heavy Holter monitors for continuous real-time monitoring. In this work, we propose a low-cost, non-invasive and reliable paper-based wearable screen printed sensor for human respiration monitoring as an effective alternative of existing sensing systems. The proposed sensor was fabricated using traditional screen printing of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite based interdigitated electrodes on paper substrate. The paper substrate was used as humidity sensing material of the sensor. The hygroscopic nature of paper during inhalation and exhalation causes a change in dielectric constant, which in turn changes the capacitance of the sensor. The composite interdigitated electrode configuration exhibited better response times with a rise time of 1.178s being recorded during exhalation and fall time of 0.88s during inhalation periods. The respiration rate of sensor was successfully examined under various breathing conditions such as normal breathing, deep breathing, workout, oral breathing, nasal breathing, fast breathing and slow breathing by employing it in a wearable mask, a mandatory wearable product during the current COVID-19 pandemic situation.Thus, the above proposed sensor may hold tremendous potential in wearable/flexible healthcare technology with good sensitivity, stability, biodegradability and flexibility at this time of need.

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Flexible strain sensors have been used in myriad of applications with studies in human physiological monitoring, robotic operation, and human–machine interaction being intensively explored in recent years. Achieving a cost effective, high-performance flexible strain sensor with high sensitivity, and capable of large-scale production have great importance particularly for next generation of wearable electronics. In the present work, the authors have proposed a strain sensor which has been fabricated by simple screen printing of multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) ink over paper substrate in a facile and cost-effective manner. A thin sheet of PET was laminated over the sensor surface to ascertain its stability towards environmental effects and physical movements. The characteristics of the printed strain sensor (PSS) were systematically analyzed for its electrical performance with strain variations, repeatability, dynamic response and durability of the same was also investigated. The strain sensor exhibited a maximum gauge factor of 31.9 within the applied strain of 0 to 1.72% and durability of 1000 bending cycles with a response and a recovery time of ~13 ms and ~17 ms respectively. Further, the fabricated strain sensors was also attached to various locations around human joints (knee, finger, elbow and wrist) and demonstrated significant sensing performance under different bending strains with superior mechanical robustness suitable for stable human motion monitoring for healthcare application.

This paper describes a simple and cost-effective technique to fabricate a multifunctional temperature sensor for Wearable Electronics Applications. The Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) sputter-coated Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) film is utilized in this work behaves like a thermo-resistive material to sense the temperature. The screen-printing technique is utilized to prepare silver electrode on ITO film. The fabricated sensor exhibits good linearity, dynamic response, and repeatability throughout the temperature range. These characteristics demonstrate the suitability of the ITO film temperature sensor to monitor the human body temperature in wearable electronic devices.