Stretchable device for continuous heart rate monitoring

The Christmas period saw retailers report an increase in the sales of wearable devices such as wrist bands which can be used to capture bio-data. However, researchers claim that, although being flexible, these types of devices don’t sit close enough to the skin, meaning they experience issues with efficiency and stability.

The researchers also claim that this new stretchable device is flexible enough to contend with the skin movement that occurs during the course of everyday life. The memory array is non-volatile and made from fully multi-plexed silicon and nano-crystal floating gates. The resulting device architecture built by the team is approximately the size of a human thumb and consists of two main parts, an array of ECG electrodes that are used for reading the heart rate, and the memory array - the two are connected together by electronics that also serve as amplifiers.

Dae-Hyeong Kim of Seoul National University, commented: "The technology in this work provides a new wearable platform for the flash memory and signal amplification devices that are important for continuous monitoring and data storage of a patient’s healthcare information.”