Preliminary study of dry knitted fabric electrodes for physiological monitoring

Abstract

Textile electrodes (20times20 mm) were knitted from commercially available conductive yarns, including silver coated nylon, stainless steel yarn, and silver coated copper filaments. The textile electrodes were fixed into a model structure that enabled control of electrode location and skin contact pressure. The Silver coated nylon electrode was used to demonstrate the repeatability of applying the structure to the subject (without skin preparation), whilst an ECG signal obtained using a set of 3M RedDOT <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">TM</sup> electrodes placed at the same locations was used as a control for assessing the textile structures' ECG signals. A set of promising ECG signals from many of the dry textile electrodes validated the methods used for fabricating electrodes from conductive yarns by conventional textile processing, placing these on the body in a model textile structure, acquiring ECG signals from dry fabric electrodes, and provided some initial insight into useful conductive fibre and filament properties, dry electrode design, and garment characteristics.