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

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.Peer reviewe