Dual Electrochemical-Ultrasonic Architecture for Minimized Signal Crosstalk in Continuous Multimodal Metabolic Monitoring
Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) systems face persistent limitations in signal stability, biocompatibility, and multimodal integration. This work presents a dual electrochemical-ultrasonic sensing architecture that minimizes signal crosstalk while maintaining low power consumption, thereby enhancing multimodal sensing accuracy and stability. The system addresses CGM constraints by combining comfort, continuity, and practicality. However, four critical challenges remain for clinical translation. First, biocompatibility and long-term stability require further evaluation, particularly regarding skin irritation, sensor degradation, and signal drift during extended wear; chronic skin response to microneedle insertion and mechanical-electrochemical durability under repeated stress demand additional study. Second, scalability and large-scale fabrication encounter integration bottlenecks in reliable assembly of flexible circuits, power units, and sensing modules on deformable substrates, with consistent performance, batch yield, and mechanical integrity under deformation remaining key engineering hurdles. Third, expansion of detectable biomarkers—including insulin, cortisol, and β-hydroxybutyric acid—is essential for early screening and refined classification of complex metabolic disorders, enabling monitoring of glycemic status, stress, hormonal regulation, and ketone metabolism. Fourth, personalized data processing algorithms must accommodate inter-individual variability in physiological signals, metabolic profiles, and behavioral patterns to enable accurate trend prediction, anomaly detection, and closed-loop regulation of multimodal signals. These advances would support adaptive, individualized disease management strategies.