Micro/nanofiber-based noninvasive devices for health monitoring diagnosis and rehabilitation

Recently, in healthcare sectors, specifically for personalized health monitoring, motion sensing, and human-machine interactions, the rising demand for stretchable and soft electronic devices is significant. In particular, stretchable, skin mountable, breathable, wearable, light weight, and highly sensitive sensors are needed for detecting subtle deformation arising from human physiological signals and have potential applications in health diagnosis. In this review, we discuss flexible, noninvasive, and wearable sensors based on micro/nanofibers with unique sensing capabilities for detecting human vital signs such as body motion, temperature, heartbeat, respiration rate, and blood glucose level, which have applications in both fitness-monitoring and medical diagnosis. Here, the latest successful examples of micro/nanofiber based flexible and wearable human vital signs monitoring sensors in the form of film, mat, yarn, fabric, textiles, etc., are outlined and discussed in detail. Discussion includes the fiber fabrication technique, sensing mechanism, device structure, sensor performance, and data processing. Some of the latest fabricated self-powered devices with integrated sensing platforms are also reviewed. Finally, this article reveals the existing challenges that are still to be overcome associated with wearable technologies for applications in health monitoring, diagnosis, and rehabilitation.