Skin Model for Monitoring Atopic Dermatitis Using Interdigitated Capacitive Sensor

Atopic dermatitis is the most common inflammatory skin disease worldwide but empirical work on monitoring the condition using digital technologies is lacking. This work presents a skin model for predicting the dielectric properties of skin with atopic dermatitis, to correlate those properties to the severity of the condition using an interdigitated capacitive sensor. A new parametric prediction of the dielectric spectrum of skin with the condition is estimated and plugged into finite element analysis software. The capacitance and phase of an interdigitated capacitor, tailored for the application of monitoring skin with AD, are computed from the simulation. The results show that the transducer's sensitivity towards changes in the severity of the condition is increased when the excitation frequency is between 10 kHz and 1 MHz. Also, the simulation confirms that the interdigitated capacitor is only sensitive towards skin with AD, and can distinguish it from other conditions.