Development of Pressure Sensor Based Wearable Pulse Detection Device for Radial Pulse Monitoring

Wearable pulse detection devices can be used for daily human healthcare monitoring; however, the relatively poor flexibility and low sensitivity of the pulse detection devices are hindering the scrutiny of pulse information during pulse diagnosis of different pulse positions. This paper developed a novel and wearable pulse detection device based on three flexible pressure sensors using synthetic graphene and silver composites as the pressure sensing material. The structural design of the pulse detection device is firstly presented; the core component of pressure sensors is using the sawtooth protrusions to convert pressure induced by radial pulse vibrations into localized deformation of graphene composites. The fabricated pulse detection device is characterized by high pressure sensing performance, including relatively high sensitivity (8.65% kPa(−1)), broad sensing range (12 kPa), and good dynamic response with a response time of about 100 ms. Then, the pulse detection device is worn on a human wrist to detect the pulses from three pulse positions, namely, ‘Cun’, ‘Guan’, and ‘Chi’, and the results demonstrated the capability of using our device to detect pulse signals. The physical conditions of the subject, such as arterial stiffness index, can be further analyzed through the characteristics of the acquired pulse signals, demonstrating the potential application of using wearable pulse detection devices for human health monitoring.