Abstract
Large healthcare markets have been created in highly developed economies to improve the quality of life. Wearable healthcare sensors are attracting considerable interest because of their 24 h real‐time monitoring capability, which make them useful in the detection of potential diseases. To guide the diagnosis, these sensors are designed to monitor various physical (e.g., pressure, temperature, strain, touch, bioelectricity, etc...) or chemical (e.g., glucose, oxygen, bacteria, viruses, proteins, etc...) quantities. In order to be comfortable to wear for a longer period of time, the sensors must be made with good stretchability to conformably deform with human organs. However, high stretchability always brings the problem that the measurement is very often polluted by the deformation of the substrate, making the data unreliable. According to each the sensor mechanism, multiple strain‐insensitive design strategies compatible with large deformations of the human body are discussed and the performance of these strategies are comprehensively analyzed. Then, how the intrinsic strain insensitivity of the Seebeck coefficient of nanomaterial percolation networks can define an alternative promising strategy is demostrated. Finally, the outlooks for future research and challenges in realizing strain‐insensitive sensors by applying the Seebeck effect are reported.
Various strain‐insensitive design strategies that are acceptable for substantial human body deformations are discussed and their efficacy is thoroughly assessed. Then, an alternative, potentially effective strategy defined by the inherent strain insensitivity of Seebeck coefficient of nanomaterial percolation networks is demonstrated. Finally, future directions for research and challenges associated with using Seebeck effect‐based strain‐insensitive sensors are discussed.