SkinECG: An orthogonal remote powering wearable skin-like sensor
The Internet of Things (IoT) era witnessed a surge in wearable devices for the human body, each requiring a power source that supports long-term operation. However, batteries are depletable and require replacement, while the effectiveness of energy-harvesting techniques is location specific. We developed the SkinECG system, an orthogonal remote powering skin-like electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor. It is powered by body-coupled powering (BCP) using power acquired optimally via suitable energy harvesters at different locations on the human body, solving the location mismatch between the energy-harvesting source and sensor. The remote Orthogonal Energy Harvesting Network (O-EHN) effectively transfers power from multiple energy-harvesting sources without internode interference and cancellation. We demonstrated the 0.71-mm-thin, flexible SkinECG system that conforms to the human chest and detects ECG signals without any cumbersome batteries or directly connected power for long-term health monitoring.
Authors
- Jia Yi Fong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1592-9628)
- Jerald Yoo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3150-1727)
- Kian Ann Ng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6044-9841)
- Junwei Feng
- Joanne Si Ying Tan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5799-5200)
- Zhuoyue Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2334-9059)
- Sixing Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0097-5628)
- Astrid Rusly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9288-3047)
- Kenjiro Fukuda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8015-5819)
- Shinyoung Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9797-8149)
- Kyungsoo Park (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6972-1143)
- Donghan Kim
- Zhongqi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7910-7278)
- Takao Someya
- Tao Tang
- Gwangjin Kim
- Lian Zhang
- Benjamin Ho Yin Lee
- Jiamin Li
Institutions
- Seoul National University (KR)
- Tokyo University of Technology (JP)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Singapore Institute of Technology (SG)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Guangdong Polytechnic of Science and Technology (CN)
- Seoul Semiconductor (South Korea) (KR)
- RIKEN (JP)
- RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (JP)
- The University of Osaka (JP)
- Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-05-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aec9803
- Primary Topic
- Innovative Energy Harvesting Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Research Foundation
- National University of Singapore
- Seoul National University
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science