Design and Fabrication of Textile-Based Electrodes for Biomedical Applications in Wearable Electronics Devices: Electrocardiography, Electromyography, and Tactile Sensing

The increasing prevalence of wearable electronic devices for healthcare monitoring has marked notable advancement. Typical medical parameters include tracking physiological signals such as electrocardiography (ECG), photoplethysmography (PPG), and electromyography (EMG), which derive vital signs, including heart rate, SpO2 level, blood pressure, activity tracking, and related metrics. Traditional methods employing wet electrodes present limitations, such as skin irritation and signal degradation over long-term monitoring, are not easy to integrate with wearable devices and are not reusable. The proposed work in this paper introduces a textile-based electrode (TBE) as a solution to these challenges. TBEs offer advantages, such as long-term monitoring capability, skin conformability, and easy integration with wearable devices. This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of TBE for different biomedical applications, including ECG, EMG, and tactile sensing. The fabrication of TBE involves the embroidery technique of conductive yarns with different combinations of design parameters. The fabricated TBEs are validated on multiple human subjects, and their performance are compared with wet electrodes, also statistical analysis is carried out. The obtained results are evident that optimized TBE designs can effectively acquire ECG and EMG that is comparable to the signal acquired using wet electrodes. Additionally, textile-based interdigitated electrodes (IDEs) are designed and fabricated for tactile sensing applications. The fabricated IDEs can detect touch and tap inputs based on changes in resistance, showing potential for use in wearable security armbands and wearable rehabilitation assistance devices. The study concludes that textile-based wearable electronic devices are feasible for various healthcare monitoring applications.