Flexible Sensor Sheets for Healthcare Applications

Abstract

This chapter introduces flexible multifunctional sensor sheets for the application of healthcare monitoring. Continuous real-time vital signals including electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, respiration rate, and chemical substances in sweat may allow us not only to check daily health condition but also to predict or diagnose the conditions based on correlation between multiple vital signs. To build this device platform, a lot of challenges still remain including new sensor developments, reliability/stability, system integration, and data collection to diagnose it. In particular, this chapter aims to discuss a three-axis acceleration sensor, a skin temperature sensor, and a sweat pH sensor on flexible sheets. In addition to the fundamental study of each sensor, device integration and its application are explained. Finally, perspective and requirements are discussed to move forward for realizing this flexible and wearable healthcare sensor sheet.