Electrode Characteristics of Non-contact Electrocardiographic Measurement

The ability to take electrocardiographic measurements while performing our daily activities has become the people-choice for modern age vital sign sensing. Currently, wet and dry ECG electrodes are known to pose threats like inflammations, allergic reactions, and metal poisoning due to their direct skin interaction. Therefore, the main goal in this work is to implement a very small ECG sensor system with a capacitive coupling, which is able to detect electrical signals of heart at a distance without the conductive gel. The aim of this paper is to design, implement, and characterize the contactless ECG electrodes. Under a careful consideration of factors that affect a capacitive electrode functional integrity, several different sizes of ECG electrodes were designed and tested with a pilot ECG device. A very small cotton-insulated copper tape electrode ($2.324cm^2$) was finally attained that could detect and measure bioelectric signal at about 500 um of distance from the subject's chest.