The Future of NFC-Based Wearable Electrochemical Sensors: A Review Integrating Biomarker Tracking and Wireless Communication

Near Field Communication (NFC), a battery-free interface operating at 13.56 MHz and combining energy harvesting and data transmission, is rapidly being adopted in wearable electrochemical sensors. This review systematically evaluates NFC-integration architectures, including antenna/energy harvesting, low-power potentiostat/analog front-end (AFE), and smartphone interfaces, for applications with biomarkers such as glucose, electrolytes, pH, and stress hormones. It summarizes key limitations, such as read distance–power budget tradeoffs, motion artifacts, and drift in biofluids, along with mitigation strategies at the circuit and material levels. Beyond hardware, it discusses artificial intelligence for denoising, calibration, and real-time inference. It evaluates NFC-specific threat models (eavesdropping, relay, spoofing) and countermeasures (signed NDEF, access control, post-quantum cryptography) in the context of health data privacy. It also addresses the sustainability dimension from the perspective of lightweight and recyclable substrates, printed conductors, and energy autonomy. Ultimately, it aims to accelerate the migration of battery-free NFC wearables to point-of-care (PoC) applications by providing a roadmap that combines security-aware electronics, AI-powered analytics, and sustainable manufacturing. This review of the peer-reviewed literature published between 2021 and 2025 prioritises the most recent developments.