The Goldilocks Paradox of Bioelectronics: Misreporting Piezoresistive Gauge Factor Is Obstructing Research Advancements.

Abstract

In the fable Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Goldilocks discerns between seemingly similar bowls of porridge using temperature. In the field of wearable bioelectronics, researchers do not have the same luxury of simple comparative analysis. Devices based on composite materials applying electrically conductive nanomaterial and polymer networks present a technology path towards an Internet of Things driven healthcare system. However, research progress has been obstructed by a lack of consistency with regards to the industry standard performance metric, the gauge factor (G). Paradoxically, studies cannot be compared, as no one study measures G the same. However, extrapolating the correct value for G, its intrinsic relationship between the signal linearity figure of merit outlines fieldwide performance limitations for devices, new metrics and materials selection criteria.