Researchers from BC Materials and Tecnalia Serbia have published a journal paper on their recent work on the printed human skin model equivalent circuit; known in the WEARPLEX project as the 'HMEC'.

The paper can be found here: Link

Abstract:

Within the efforts of developing a new generation of biomedical electrodes with embedded switching logics, the present work focuses on developing safe and simple procedures for testing these novel systems. The development and demonstration of an all-printed flexible testbed for automated validation and testing of multi pad systems is presented.

The system is based on a Human model equivalent circuit (HMEC), a device that, when connected to the electrical stimulation system, mirrors the electrical behavior of biomedical electrodes and their specific interface material as if they are placed on a human subject. A simulation model of the electrical stimulation system components was developed based on the experimental data, in order to optimize printed electronic components’ characteristics and design.

The testbed is composed of five layers of different conductive and dielectric materials screen-printed on a flexible PET substrate. The system was prototyped with the characteristic values of the HMEC matching the average experimental data acquired from human subjects. Thus, it is demonstrated that an all printed flexible HMEC is a feasible approach to enabling the functional testing of transcutaneous electrical stimulation devices required for their fabrication, evaluation and optimization, reducing the need for tests on human subjects in the development phase of new systems.

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