Flexible Forearm Triboelectric Sensors for Parkinson's Disease Diagnosing and Monitoring

Existing approaches that assess and monitor the severity of Parkinson's Disease (PD) focus on the integration of wearable devices based on inertial sensors (accelerometers, gyroscopes) and electromyographic (EMG) transducers. Nevertheless, some of these sensors are bulky and lack comfortability. This manuscript presents triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as an alternative stretchable sensor solution enabling PD monitoring systems. The prototype has been developed using a triboelectric sensor based on Ecoflex™ and PEDOT:PSS that is placed on the forearm. The movement of the skin above the forearm muscles and tendons correlates with the extension and flexion of fingers and hands. This way, the small gap of 0.5 cm between the polymer layers is displaced, generating voltage due to the triboelectric contact. Signals from preliminary experiments can discriminate different dynamics of emulated tremor and bradykinesia in hands and fingers. A modified version of the TS is integrated with a printed circuit board (PCB) in a single package with signal conditioning and wireless data transmission. The sensor platforms have demonstrated a good sensitivity to PD symptoms like bradykinesia and tremor based on the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS:UPDRS).