UC Irvine

The emergence of wearable electronics provides opportunity for continuous health monitoring. Current wearable devices are unable to continuously monitor blood pressure, primarily due to poor wearability and sensing limitations of the sphygmomanometer. The development of conformal pressure sensors enables continuous measurement of pulse pressure, offering an alternative to the outdated cuff. Although conformal sensors show promising sensing properties at low pressures, expensive fabrication and unrealistic applications have hindered their adoption. This work provides a simple, low cost, scalable method for fabricating piezoresistive sensors by combining wrinkle-patterned polydimethsiloxane and highly conductive carbon nanotubes. These flexible pressure sensors demonstrate high sensitivity (0.65kPa-1), fast response time (<10ms), and low power consumption, with an operating voltage of ~1V. This work further demonstrates the application of these sensors for real-time monitoring of pulse pressure, as well as their compatibility with wearable electronics.