Wearable, Broadband Auscultation Patch with Cantilever Pressure Transducer for Remote Healthcare Monitoring

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Abstract

Abstract Flexible and wearable devices employing acoustic sensors have emerged as promising alternatives for continuous monitoring of physiological mechano-acoustic signals during daily activities, offering distinct advantages over conventional rigid stethoscopes. However, the limited low-frequency sensitivity of commercial MEMS acoustic sensors constrains their ability to accurately capture vital physiological signals. Here, we present a wireless, flexible auscultation patch (AusculPatch) that overcomes these limitations by employing a highly sensitive cantilever pressure transducer (CPT). The combination of a narrow airgap in CPT together with the ultra-low mass of the nanothin cantilever enables precise measurement across a broad acoustic frequency range (0.2Hz to over 10kHz), allowing the detection of multiple physiological mechano-acoustic signals, including pulse waves, Korotkoff sounds, cardiac signals, respiration patterns, and vocalizations. The single-chip architecture simplifies circuitry, enabling a lightweight design (~ 3.2g), compact form factor (20×47×3.5 mm), and low power consumption (4.5mW), making AusculPatch an ideal platform for continuous wear for cardiorespiratory monitoring and potentially sleep quality assessment. These features represent a significant advance in the development of low-cost and multifunctional wearable devices capable of multi-site auscultation for home-based wellness monitoring as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnosis and Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) applications.
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Wearable, Broadband Auscultation Patch with Cantilever Pressure Transducer for Remote Healthcare Monitoring | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Wearable, Broadband Auscultation Patch with Cantilever Pressure Transducer for Remote Healthcare Monitoring Hoang-Phuong Phan, Tran Bach Dang, Chi Cong Nguyen, Seung Yun Heo, and 13 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7544614/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Flexible and wearable devices employing acoustic sensors have emerged as promising alternatives for continuous monitoring of physiological mechano-acoustic signals during daily activities, offering distinct advantages over conventional rigid stethoscopes. However, the limited low-frequency sensitivity of commercial MEMS acoustic sensors constrains their ability to accurately capture vital physiological signals. Here, we present a wireless, flexible auscultation patch (AusculPatch) that overcomes these limitations by employing a highly sensitive cantilever pressure transducer (CPT). The combination of a narrow airgap in CPT together with the ultra-low mass of the nanothin cantilever enables precise measurement across a broad acoustic frequency range (0.2Hz to over 10kHz), allowing the detection of multiple physiological mechano-acoustic signals, including pulse waves, Korotkoff sounds, cardiac signals, respiration patterns, and vocalizations. The single-chip architecture simplifies circuitry, enabling a lightweight design (~ 3.2g), compact form factor (20×47×3.5 mm), and low power consumption (4.5mW), making AusculPatch an ideal platform for continuous wear for cardiorespiratory monitoring and potentially sleep quality assessment. These features represent a significant advance in the development of low-cost and multifunctional wearable devices capable of multi-site auscultation for home-based wellness monitoring as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted diagnosis and Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) applications. Physical sciences/Engineering/Electrical and electronic engineering Physical sciences/Engineering/Biomedical engineering Physical sciences/Engineering/Mechanical engineering Health sciences/Health care/Diagnosis/Physical examination Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. T.B.D., C.C.N., S.Z., T.N.D., and H.-P.P. are inventors on a patent application submitted by UNSW Sydney that covers the sensor design, integration architecture, and fabrication method of AusculPatch. The other authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files SupplementaryMovie1.mp4 Supplementary Movie 1 SupplementaryMovie2.mp4 Supplementary Movie 2 SupplementaryMovie3.mp4 Supplementary Movie 3 SupplementaryMovie4.mp4 Supplementary Movie 4 SupplementaryMovie5.mp4 Supplementary Movie 5 SupplementaryMovie6.mp4 Supplementary Movie 6 SupplementaryDoccument.docx Supporting Information for main manuscript Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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