Low-Intensity Sensitive and High Stability Flexible Heart Sound Sensor Enabled by Hybrid Near-Field/Far-Field Electrospinning

Low-cost and wearable heart sound sensors can facilitate early detection and monitoring of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Such sensors are currently limited by either the complexity of fabrication processes or low sensitivity and reliability for weak signal detection. Here, a hybrid near-field/far-field electrospinning approach is demonstrated that enables low-cost fabrication and optimization of triboelectric heterostructures for heart sound sensing. Specifically, by combining the far-field produced highly polarized and porous polyvinylidene difluoride network for triboelectric electrification and near-field patterned polyurethane grid spacers for vibration enhancement and charge trapping, the greatly improved sensor output at the heart sound frequency (50-150 Hz) and intensity (<80 dB) range, demonstrating record high sensitivity of 7027 mV Pa-1 and low detection limit of 47 dB. The sensor exhibits excellent stability under both sudden physical disturbance and long-term cycling stress, showing no degradation during 7 h of continuous operation. It is demonstrated that the sensor can be integrated with apparel and capture high-quality heart sound signals at all five diagnostic auscultation points and distinguish characteristic heart sound patterns caused by different cardiovascular diseases.

Automated summary

Low-cost and wearable heart sound sensors can facilitate early detection and monitoring of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. By using a hybrid near-field/far-field electrospinning approach, a new heart sound sensor with high sensitivity and low detection limit is demonstrated. The sensor can be integrated with apparel and capture high-quality heart sound signals to distinguish different cardiovascular diseases.