Conceptual illustration of digital health monitoring. Credit: Ikon Images / Andrew Baker / Science Photo Library

Stretchable electronics for health monitoring

28 October 2024

Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have created a new wearable computing platform that could represent an important step forward in the field of digital healthcare. The team, led by Dr Shiming Zhang, has developed a flexible electronic system that can process health data directly on the body.

The technology is based on organic electrochemical transistors, electronic components specifically designed for biological applications. Unlike conventional rigid electronics, these devices can stretch by more than 50 percent, making them compatible with natural body movement. The system is manufactured using a sophisticated six-channel inkjet printing process, achieving precise features as small as 100 micrometres.

A key innovation is the platform's ability to process data locally on the device itself rather than sending information to external computers. This 'in-sensor computing' approach offers several advantages: faster processing, enhanced privacy protection, and reduced power consumption. The entire system has been miniaturised to the size of a coin and can be integrated into common wearables such as smartwatches.

The platform's soft microelectronics technology addresses long-standing hardware challenges in human-machine interfacing, digital health, and AI medicine and shows promise for use in continuous health monitoring applications, maintaining stable performance even during physical activity.

The research has been published in Nature Electronics, with Dingyao Liu, Xinyu Tian, Jing Bai, and Shaocong Wang as co-first authors and Zhang and Dr Zhongrui Wang as corresponding authors.