Soft, skin-interfaced microfluidic systems with wireless, battery-free electronics for digital, real-time tracking of sweat loss and electrolyte composition

Kim, S. B.*; Lee, K.-H.*; Raj, M. S.*; Reeder, J. T.*; Koo, J.*; Hourlier-Fargette, A.*; Bandodkar, A. J.*; Won, S. M.*; Sekine, Yurina   ; Choi, J.*; Zhang, Y.*; Yoon, J.*; Kim, B. H.*; Yun, Y.*; Lee, S.*; Shin, J.*; Kim, J.*; Ghaffari, R.*; Rogers, J. A.*

Excretion of sweat from eccrine glands is a dynamic physiological process that varies with body position, activity level, and health status. Information content embodied in sweat rate and chemistry can be used to assess health status and athletic performance. This paper presents a thin, miniaturized, skin-interfaced microfluidic technology that includes a reusable, battery-free electronics module for measuring sweat conductivity and rate in real-time using wireless power from and data communication with capabilities in near field communications (NFC). Systematic studies of these combined microfluidic/electronic systems, accurate correlations of measurements performed with them to those of laboratory standard instrumentation, and field tests on human subjects establish the key operational features and their utility in sweat analytics.