Balancing sensitivity and integration in capacitive pressure sensors for textile-based health monitoring

Abstract Capacitive pressure sensors (CPSs) are increasingly important for wearable and textile-based health monitoring due to their high sensitivity, low power consumption, and structural flexibility. Building on a structured literature review (2015–2025), we conducted a systematic analysis of 34 CPS designs across five categories—microstructuring, foams, ionic liquids/gels/metals, bioinspired architectures, and multisensing/strong bonding—using a newly developed Textile Suitability Score (TSS) that integrates nine performance and integration-relevant attributes. Trade-off analysis revealed that ionic metal-based sensors dominate in raw performance, combining very high sensitivity with broad pressure ranges, but face scalability and textile-compatibility challenges. By contrast, microstructuring offers the closest balance between sensitivity and integration, while multisensing and strong bonding form a consistent cluster with the highest TSS values. Foams and bioinspired designs ranked lower due to reproducibility and stability issues. Together, these results expose clear performance-integration trade-offs and uncover unexplored design pathways, charting a roadmap for next-generation textile-integrated health monitoring systems.