A wearable autonomous heart rate sensor based on piezoelectric-charge-gated thin-film transistor for continuous multi-point monitoring.

Autonomous wearable biomedical sensors enable continuous human body vital signs monitoring with features such as being conformable, mobile, cost-effective and self-powered. In this work, we report on an autonomous and multi-positional sensor capable of heart rate and blood pressure monitoring. The device concept is based on a piezoelectric-charge-gated thin-film transistor (PCGTFT) where a polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) piezoelectric sandwich structure is incorporated with an amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) dual-gate TFT (DGTFT). An analytical model and preliminary experimental results will be presented along with a demonstration of a proof-of-concept sensing system for continuous multi-point heart rate monitoring.