An epifluidic electronic patch with spiking sweat clearance for event-driven perspiration monitoring

Abstract

Sensory neurons generate spike patterns upon receiving external stimuli and encode key information to the spike patterns, enabling energy-efficient external information processing. Herein, we report an epifluidic electronic patch with spiking sweat clearance using a sensor containing a vertical sweat-collecting channel for event-driven, energy-efficient, long-term wireless monitoring of epidermal perspiration dynamics. Our sweat sensor contains nanomesh electrodes on its inner wall of the channel and unique sweat-clearing structures. During perspiration, repeated filling and abrupt emptying of the vertical sweat-collecting channel generate electrical spike patterns with the sweat rate and ionic conductivity proportional to the spike frequency and amplitude over a wide dynamic range and long time (> 8 h). With such 'spiking' sweat clearance and corresponding electronic spike patterns, the epifluidic wireless patch successfully decodes epidermal perspiration dynamics in an event-driven manner at different skin locations during exercise, consuming less than 0.6% of the energy required for continuous data transmission. Our patch could integrate various on-skin sensors and emerging edge computing technologies for energy-efficient, intelligent digital healthcare.