[Courtesy of POSTECH]
Various hospital devices are used to detect pulse waves and measure blood pressure but such monitoring sensors are bulky and normally made in shapes of clamps and cuffs. There are smartwatches capable of measuring blood pressure by reading vascular pulses using optic sensors but they are not so accurate compared to bulky devices.
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) said in a statement on February 28 that its research team developed the ultra-thin pulse wave sensor patch by printing conductive ink onto a very thin circuit board. The manufacturing cost of wearable sensors can be drastically reduced by using this inkjet-printing method, POSTECH said.
The ultra-thin sensor with 100 sensor pixels can create a two-dimensional map of pulse waves while accurately measuring pressure signals and the location of arteries. "This research is very important because it holds the potential for the utilization of inkjet-printing technique in the development of next-generation personalized wearable devices," POSTECH researcher Jung Sung-jun was quoted as saying.
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
