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Wearable devices that track health signals are becoming increasingly sophisticated, but many current sensors still struggle with accuracy. Movements, temperature changes, and moisture can distort readings, limiting their reliability for continuous monitoring. A new development from Stanford University offers a potential solution: skin-inspired organic biosensors designed to provide drift-free, real-time measurements.
The sensors are built using organic field-effect transistors (OFETs), which leverage organic semiconductors to control electrical currents. Their design allows them to flex and stretch with the body, while maintaining accurate signal detection under environmental or mechanical stress.
The key innovation lies in a “twin” OFET structure. Two nearly identical transistors are placed in close proximity, experiencing the same external disturbances. By connecting them through a diode, shared noise and drift can be mathematically cancelled out, leaving only the signals originating from specific biomarkers. It filters out unrelated signals, measuring only the biomarker of interest.
According to TechXplore, in tests, the biosensors demonstrated substantial improvements in accuracy. Signal distortion caused by bending, stretching, compression, and temperature fluctuations was reduced by over two orders of magnitude. The sensors successfully tracked key biomarkers in sweat, including cortisol, glucose, and sodium, enabling continuous monitoring of stress levels and metabolic indicators.
The Stanford team also integrated the sensors with a flexible circuit and a smartphone interface, showing that they could reliably transmit real-time data from the wearer. This setup illustrates the potential for practical applications in personal health monitoring, stress management, and early detection of medical conditions.
Future work aims to expand the technology into fully soft, stretchable e-skins, combining sensing, signal conditioning, power, and wireless communication in a single wearable platform. With these improvements, the next generation of wearable biosensors could offer unprecedented accuracy for both mental and physical health tracking, bridging the gap between lab-grade precision and everyday wearable convenience.
The research highlights how biomimetic design and innovative electronics can overcome longstanding challenges in wearable health monitoring, creating devices that adapt to the body without compromising measurement fidelity.
The research was published in the Nature Electronics Journal.
