Comparison of Simulated and Measured Results of Non-contact Capacitive Electrodes for Biomedical Applications

Two designs of four-layered non-contact capacitive electrodes were used to perform biomedical measurements on a physical prototype. For this purpose, a low-power wireless biomedical sensor system was used. The goal of this research was to compare these measurements with the results obtained from a stationary and low-frequency analysis of the capacitive coupling between the aforementioned electrodes and a concentric cylinder model of the upper arm, implemented in the CST Studio Suite® software. The results of the capacitive coupling dependence on the fabric thickness and its dielectric permittivity, the distance between the electrode and fabric, as well as detection surface radius, have confirmed the applicability of such finite element method simulations for qualitative system analysis without the necessity of creating a physical prototype, as well as provided guidelines on the further development of non-contact capacitive electrodes.