The University of Southampton
University of Southampton Institutional Repository

Screen printed textile based wearable biopotential monitoring

Screen printed textile based wearable biopotential monitoring
Screen printed textile based wearable biopotential monitoring
This thesis describes the development of printed wearable electrode networks on textiles for monitoring human biopotentials from the skin surface. The aim was to fabricate garments to monitor human biopotentials, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), on a long term basis. A literature review was carried out to examine fabrication methods for wearable electrode networks on textile and screen printing is selected for this work. Several conductive and insulating screen printable pastes were then evaluated for this application and suitable pastes were selected. Screen printing was used to create networks of conductive tracks on the surface of woven textiles. These networks connect electrodes at different sites to electronics at a central location. The conductive tracks are composed of a silver polymer layer with thickness 5-10 µm entirely encapsulated in polyurethane. The durability of these printed conductive tracks is investigated with cyclic stress and washing machine tests. A significant improvement in the durability of these tracks is achieved by using two different polyurethane pastes and optimising the screen printed layer structure. Tracks that can reliably endure 10 typical domestic machine washes without breaking are demonstrated. Carbon loaded silicone rubber is stencil printed to form electrodes on exposed conductive pads at the terminations of screen printed conductive tracks. The carbon loaded rubber formulation is optimised to provide electrodes with low resistivity, low surface energy and high flexibility. By using stencil printing rather than screen printing, the thickness of the electrodes is increased, causing them to protrude from the textile surface, which is useful in ensuring stable electrode-skin contact. Passive and active electrodes are fabricated on woven textiles using screen and stencil printing, and their performance is evaluated. The passive electrodes have issues with DC instability, but have suitable performance for some electromyography tasks and basic heart rate monitoring. The active electrodes show comparable performance with the gold standard, commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes. The printed textile electrode networks are demonstrated in four applications: a one-lead bipolar heart monitoring belt, a Frank configuration vector-cardiogram monitoring vest, a headband as an electromyographic (EMG) and electrooculographic (EOG) computer interface, and an armband used to examine electromyographic activity in the upper arm. Screen printing on textiles is shown to be a low-cost alternative fabrication process for durable wearable electrode networks on textiles, capable of providing high signal quality. These printed textile electrode networks are shown to be applicable to ambulatory monitoring, to reduce the associated cost and discomfort, and in hospitals and research to reduce electrode setup time.
Paul, Gordon
1961caa4-90b9-4855-a5aa-778c11a88ea2
Paul, Gordon
1961caa4-90b9-4855-a5aa-778c11a88ea2
Beeby, Steve
ba565001-2812-4300-89f1-fe5a437ecb0d

Paul, Gordon (2014) Screen printed textile based wearable biopotential monitoring. University of Southampton, Physical Sciences and Engineering, Doctoral Thesis, 236pp.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This thesis describes the development of printed wearable electrode networks on textiles for monitoring human biopotentials from the skin surface. The aim was to fabricate garments to monitor human biopotentials, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), on a long term basis. A literature review was carried out to examine fabrication methods for wearable electrode networks on textile and screen printing is selected for this work. Several conductive and insulating screen printable pastes were then evaluated for this application and suitable pastes were selected. Screen printing was used to create networks of conductive tracks on the surface of woven textiles. These networks connect electrodes at different sites to electronics at a central location. The conductive tracks are composed of a silver polymer layer with thickness 5-10 µm entirely encapsulated in polyurethane. The durability of these printed conductive tracks is investigated with cyclic stress and washing machine tests. A significant improvement in the durability of these tracks is achieved by using two different polyurethane pastes and optimising the screen printed layer structure. Tracks that can reliably endure 10 typical domestic machine washes without breaking are demonstrated. Carbon loaded silicone rubber is stencil printed to form electrodes on exposed conductive pads at the terminations of screen printed conductive tracks. The carbon loaded rubber formulation is optimised to provide electrodes with low resistivity, low surface energy and high flexibility. By using stencil printing rather than screen printing, the thickness of the electrodes is increased, causing them to protrude from the textile surface, which is useful in ensuring stable electrode-skin contact. Passive and active electrodes are fabricated on woven textiles using screen and stencil printing, and their performance is evaluated. The passive electrodes have issues with DC instability, but have suitable performance for some electromyography tasks and basic heart rate monitoring. The active electrodes show comparable performance with the gold standard, commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes. The printed textile electrode networks are demonstrated in four applications: a one-lead bipolar heart monitoring belt, a Frank configuration vector-cardiogram monitoring vest, a headband as an electromyographic (EMG) and electrooculographic (EOG) computer interface, and an armband used to examine electromyographic activity in the upper arm. Screen printing on textiles is shown to be a low-cost alternative fabrication process for durable wearable electrode networks on textiles, capable of providing high signal quality. These printed textile electrode networks are shown to be applicable to ambulatory monitoring, to reduce the associated cost and discomfort, and in hospitals and research to reduce electrode setup time.

Text
__soton.ac.uk_ude_personalfiles_users_jo1d13_mydesktop_GP-Thesis-Final.pdf - Other
Download (12MB)

More information

Published date: July 2014
Organisations: University of Southampton, EEE

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 374177
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/374177
PURE UUID: 8e78c597-3119-43c4-b883-99f7b84019d7
ORCID for Steve Beeby: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0800-1759

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Feb 2015 14:16
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 05:13

Export record

Contributors

Author: Gordon Paul
Thesis advisor: Steve Beeby ORCID iD

Download statistics

Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.

View more statistics

Atom RSS 1.0 RSS 2.0

Contact ePrints Soton: eprints@soton.ac.uk

ePrints Soton supports OAI 2.0 with a base URL of http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/cgi/oai2

This repository has been built using EPrints software, developed at the University of Southampton, but available to everyone to use.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue without changing your settings, we will assume that you are happy to receive cookies on the University of Southampton website.

×