Paper-based wearable ultra-sensitive strain sensors for fitness monitoring

Abstract

Emerging technologies that exhibit features of biodegradability and eco-friendliness are potential game changers. Paper is a cost-effective and easily available material that has proved itself a promising candidate for the manufacturing of strain sensors due to its easy integration into flexible electronics. In this work, an ultra-sensitive and highly stable strain sensor is presented. The modified interdigital capacitor (MIDC) structure is fabricated on a simple printing paper whereas copper tape is used as an electrode material. In the anticipated work, the milestones of high sensitivity, durability, and fast response time altogether are achieved. The proposed flexible strain sensor is eco-friendly, bio-degradable, inexpensive, and responds well to applied strain. The proposed work exhibits a fast response time of 0.56 sec. The high gauge factor value of 3040.26 and stability up to 5000 cycles. The proposed prototype has been also implemented on the human body for monitoring physical activities and fitness exercises. The proposed strain sensor is an outstandingly good option for assimilation into wearable systems like remote healthcare systems, electromechanical sensing, and human physical monitoring.

Skin‐Mount Textile‐Based Flexible Strain Sensors for Physiotherapy

“…So, this is the whole principle that explains why capacitance changes upon bending. [18] The pictorial explanation of the working mechanism can be found in Figure S2, Supporting Information.…”

“…In the last decade, flexible materials have been widely investigated for manufacturing flexible strain sensors. The flexible strain sensors are prepared extensively for use in several applications like fatigue monitoring, [11] human-machine interface, [12] electronic skin, [13] and many others.Enormous studies reported on flexible strain sensors, which include flexible substrates like polydimethylsiloxane, [14] thermoplastic polyurethane, [15] Ecoflex, [16] silicon rubber, [17] paper, [18,19] and lot more. Continuous wearing of these materials does not prove themselves a promising selection.…”

“…Enormous studies reported on flexible strain sensors, which include flexible substrates like polydimethylsiloxane, [14] thermoplastic polyurethane, [15] Ecoflex, [16] silicon rubber, [17] paper, [18,19] and lot more. Continuous wearing of these materials does not prove themselves a promising selection.…”

Highly sensitive strain sensors based on dispensing technology for human–machine interaction

“…Although the preparation of the strain sensors mentioned above is simple and flexible, their sensitivity in detecting human joint motion is low and they cannot respond quickly to external stimuli. Therefore, optimizing sensor performance to achieve accurate hand motion monitoring while ensuring a simple and flexible preparation process is the main challenge faced by current researchers [30][31][32][33][34].…”

Paper-based facile capacitive touch arrays for wireless mouse cursor control pad

“…Flexible electronics and wearable electronic devices have demonstrated a considerable application potential for flexible sensing technology [ 6 ], which has also received extensive research. Flexible sensors with resistive, capacitive, inductive, triboelectric, and other sensing techniques were used to measure mechanical amounts [ [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] ]. Due to its low price, the lightweight, easily accessible cellulose-based paper has gained popularity recently.…”