Advances and current challenges in non-invasive wearable sensors and wearable biosensors—A mini-review

Abstract

Flexible wearable sensors and wearable biosensors have attracted considerable interest in the scientific community. They have shown relevant potential for continuous monitoring of physiological functions in real-time and non-invasively using biofluids. Recent nanotechnology advances in sensor miniaturization and lower costs have driven the development of new flexible sensors. These new materials make sensors and biosensors promising and will cause a substantial impact on society by providing an improvement in the quality of life, as well as in a faster diagnosis and early treatment. However, considerable challenges still need to be overcome for these sensors to reach their totality, as such as improving available power supplies, low power data transmission mode, problems with device deformation and contaminated, continuous wear, understanding the correlations between analytes in biofluids and blood to validate results, and issues of security and privacy. Overcoming these challenges will allow, through the diffusion of this technology, to modify how the disease can be monitored in the future. Due to this, systematic studies should be conducted to elucidate and enhance the understanding of the current challenges for the development and implementation of wearable sensors (WS) and wearable biosensors (WBS). In this mini-review, we discuss the state of the art of these devices, critically addressing the advances by debating the current gaps and the challenges that need to overcome this science area.