Techniques and Materials for High-Throughput Fabrication and Integration of Multiparameter Flexible Skin Patches

The development of batch fabrication techniques for flexible skin patches may promote the use of these devices in daily health monitoring and public health crisis. Here, a modularized mass fabrication and selective integration approach that can yield multiparameter electronic skin patches are presented. The screen-printing technique has been adopted to achieve five modularized sensors for electrocardiogram (ECG), temperature, hydration, blood oxygen, and pH sensing as well as a universal central hub to connect the sensors with external wireless circuits. In a single glass substrate, 13 ECG electrodes, more than 200 sensors, or 80 central hubs can be printed with high homogeneity in performance. In addition to rapid printing of these components, special temperature-sensitive paste, batch electropolymerization processes, selection of stress confining substrates, and usage of anisotropic conductive tapes have been investigated to facilitate the integration processes of the multiparameter skin patches. The systematic techniques presented in this paper may help to overcome the bottleneck that is currently constraining the mass fabrication of multiparameter skin patches, allowing rapid deployment and convenient application of these devices for health monitoring in large populations.