Capacitive Silicone-Textile Strain Sensor for Soft Biomedical Applications

Despite the growing demand for soft strain sensors in biomedical applications, most conventional sensors suffer from limitations in stretchability, durability, sensitivity, or hysteresis, preventing them from fully meeting this need. In this study, we present a manufacturing process for soft capacitive strain sensors using a silicone-based dielectric and a conductive fabric, that can be encapsulated for use as implantable organ monitoring devices. The sensors were characterized through cyclic loading and unloading tests, demonstrating high stretchability (> 500 %), a gauge factor of 0.4 with high linearity, minimal drift (1.2 % over 10 minutes under constant strain), and low hysteresis (0.5 %). These properties make them suitable for in-vivo applications such as soft organ strain monitoring. Further characterization in a saline environment and in-vivo experiments will validate their potential for long-term soft organ monitoring.Clinical RelevanceCapacitive soft sensors overcome typical limitations of conventional strain sensors, making them usable on soft organs for wearable or implantable devices.