Towards a wearable impedimetric sensor for emotional sweat monitoring

Emotional sweat is used in electrodermal activity sensors in order to detect on-going epileptic seizures through the arousal of the sympathetic nervous system. Given that one third of the epileptic patients do not respond to drugs, the interest in such sensors has been growing due to their wearability, their non-invasiveness and their ability to monitor patient’s skin over a long period of time. By scanning through an absorbent pad thanks to its interdigitated structure, the sensor herein developed captures additional parameters like conductivity and permittivity of sweat with the objective of enhancing seizure detection. The wearable sensor is designed to be flexible to properly fit the skin, and shall be positioned on the base of the thumb. Tests have shown a good discrimination between different salt concentrations, as well as a discrimination between different volumes of solution for de-ionized water. Thanks to promising results, this master thesis is the first step of a long journey towards a wearable impedimetric sensor product for emotional sweat and epilepsy detection and monitoring.