Fabrication and characteristic of flexible dry bioelectrodes with microstructures inspired by golden margined century plant leaf

Abstract To obtain a flexible dry bioelectrode with high performance, this paper proposes a flexible dry bioelectrode with microneedle structures inspired by golden margined century plant leaf. The microneedle structures are fabricated by laser processing method, and then embedded inside the flexible PDMS substrate. In this way, the flexible dry bioelectrode with curved-hook type microneedle structures is obtained. The mechanical and electrical properties of the bioelectrode is characterized. Results show that the curved-hook type microneedle has a smaller penetration force (0.939 N) but bigger pullout force (0.149 N) compared with triangular microneedles. The curved-hook type microneedle structures allow better anti-destructive and bonding performance. Additionally, compared with traditional Ag/AgCl electrode, the developed flexible dry bioelectrodes exhibit better detection performance of EMG in both time and frequency domain.