Design of strain tolerant electrodes for flexible biosensors: a review

Authors

  • Hannah McPhee Engineering Physics

Abstract

Flexible biosensors are an exciting new technology that enables advancements in health care. Flexible biosensors can be used for real time health monitoring and disease diagnosis through wearable or implantable sensors. In order for these sensors to be practical for use, they must be biocompatible, electrochemically sensitive, inexpensive, and tolerant to strain. This paper reviews the design of electrodes for flexible biosensors that are tolerant to strain. Common materials (gold, silver and carbon) used in biosensors have been shown to be sensitive and biocompatible, so electrodes of these materials are studied for use in strain tolerant sensors. The methods through which strain tolerance is studied are outlined, and recent flexible biosensors with either crumpled film or serpentine geometries are compared. A review of the current technology reveals that crumpled geometry biosensors, while more expensive to produce, can tolerate significantly more strain than serpentine based electrodes before losing their conductivity.

Published

2019-04-08

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2019): The McMaster Journal of Engineering Physics

Section

Articles

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