Institute of Solid State Physics

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Ink-jet Printed Conformable Temporary-Tattoo Electrodes for Electrophysiology Recordings and Brain Computer Interfaces
Francesco Greco
11:15 - 12:15 Wednesday 10 October 2018 PH01150

The emergent field of conformable electronics can enable the development of unperceivable personal monitoring systems to be used in healthcare and sport, especially in skin contact applications.
In this talk I will report about a robust, low cost and safe strategy for producing disposable ultraconformable electrodes for skin-contact electrophysiology applications, by using temporary tattoo paper as an unconventional substrate. Tattoo electrodes and multielectrode arrays based on conducting polymer PEDOT:PSS are fabricated by ink-jet printing, laser cutting/engraving and lamination. Thanks to this choice, several different configurations of arrays could be customized for different applications. They can be easily transferred on skin as temporary transfer tattoos. The overall thickness of such electrodes is < 1 μm. We demonstrated their successful performances as stable, dry electrodes for surface electromyography (sEMG), permitting the myographic control of a robotic hand. [1] Recent advancements include high density sEMG as well as ECG and skin impedance recording with stable adhesion and operation. Long-term recording was assessed which favorably compares with state of art electrodes. [2] The next challenging step included recording of brain activity signal in electroencephalography (EEG) which paves the way to more sophisticated applications in Brain Computer Interfaces. Ongoing work involves novel materials and fabrication strategies as well as integration of advanced devices in tattoos towards fully autonomous epidermal monitoring systems.

References

[1] Zucca, A.; Cipriani, C.; Sudha; Tarantino, S.; Ricci, D.; Mattoli, V.*; Greco, F.*, Tattoo conductive polymer nanosheets for skin-contact applications. Advanced Healthcare Materials 2015, 4 (7), 983-990.
[2] Ferrari, L.; Sudha, S.; Tarantino, S.; Esposti, R.; Bolzoni, F.; Cavallari, P.; Cipriani, C.; Mattoli, V.*; Greco, F.* Ultraconformable temporary-tattoo electrodes for electrophysiology. Advanced Science 2018, 5(3) 1700771