A Fully Printed Ultra-Thin Charge Amplifier for On-Skin Biosignal Measurements

Abstract

In this contribution, we propose a fully printed charge amplifier for on-skin biosignal measurements. The amplifier is fabricated on an ultra-thin parylene substrate and consists of organic transistors, integrated bias and feedback resistors, and a feedback capacitor. The fabrication process utilizes inkjet-printed Ag ink for source, drain, gate, and capacitor electrode metallization as well as for the interconnects between the amplifier elements. Dispensed polystyrene, 2,7-dihexyl-dithieno[2,3-d:2',3'-d']benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b']dithiophene (PS:DTBDT-C6), is used as the transistor channel material, dispensed poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the high-resistivity material for the printed resistors, and parylene as the capacitor dielectric. A pass band optimized for pulse-wave measurement (60 mHz to 36 Hz) is achieved with a maximum charge amplification of 1.6 V/nC. To demonstrate the potential of the proposed printed amplifier, a radial arterial pulsewave signal recorded with a printed piezoelectric poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-trifluoroethylene) (PVDF-TrFE) sensor was fed to it and the output was analyzed to quantify the similarity of the pulse-wave features calculated from the original signal and the amplifier output. The amplified signal contains all the essential features of a pulse wave, such as both systolic waves, the dicrotic notch, and diastolic wave, which enable the accurate derivation of the clinically relevant indices utilized in the evaluation of vascular health.