2013 2nd International Conference on Advances in Biomedical Engineering

Electrode-Gel-Skin Interface Characterization and

Modeling for Surface Biopotential Recording:
Impedance Measurements and Noise
SAADI Hyem and ATTARI Mokhtar
Laboratory of Instrumentation (LINS)
Faculty of Electronics and Computers
USTHB, P.O.Box.32, Bab Ezzouar 16111, Algiers, Algeria
hy.saadi@gmail.com, mattari@usthb.dz

Abstract— In this work, electrical impedance spectroscopy
(EIS) has been used to characterize the electrical properties of
the electrode-electrolyte interface and the electrode-skin
interface. The impedance was measured from face to face
Ag/AgCl electrode pairs, as well as the impedance of Ag/AgCl
electrodes placed on the human body surface, in the frequency
band from 0.05Hz to 1MHz. The obtained frequency responses
of each interface were analyzed to determine their electrical
models, with parameterization of the described impedance
models using an optimization program written in Matlab
source software. The thermal noises were also calculated for
both interfaces.
Keywords— Impedance measurement; Electrode modeling;
Skin-Electrode interface; Impedance spectroscopy; Electrode
noise.
to extract quantitative parameters of its impedance where
different methods exist. Previous studies have demonstrated
that the measurement of the DC skin-electrode impedance
does not provide sufficient information [6]. Because of the
capacitive component presented by the epidermal layer, AC
measurement is needed to obtain a precise estimate of the
skin-electrode interface [6].
This paper reports the results of impedance
measurements for both interfaces by EIS. Then, an analysis
of the frequency responses (magnitude and phase) permit to
define the electrical models. The obtained results provide
valuable information for the design of the input stage of
biopotential amplifier in order to avoid signal distortion and
to compute the electrode noise as well as the electrode-
amplifier noise.

I. INTRODUCTION II. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP

Bioelectrodes play an important role in medicine and
biomedical applications. They are widely used for recording
bioelectrical potentials such as electroencephalography
(EEG), electrocardiography (ECG) and electromyography
(EMG). In these applications, biopotentials are low
amplitude signals that can be affected by a number of factors
including: skin, electrode and recording amplifiers which
limit the capacity of the acquisition system to reproduce it
with perfect fidelity [1, 2]. Because of the technology
progress, the amplifier does not need to be the dominant
noise source in biopotential recording. Although, electrodes
introduce significant noise component, its analysis is not
simple because it depends on the pair electrode-skin [3, 4].
Therefore, the electrode-skin contact impedance behavior
and its modeling are of crucial importance for high
resolution surface biopotential recording [5].
Surface bioelectrodes consist of a metallic surface and an
electrolyte in contact with the skin. This arrangement creates
two interfaces: metal-electrolyte and skin-electrolyte. The
skin-electrolyte interface is difficult to study because it
depends on skin properties, which differ from subject to
subject, while the metal-electrolyte interface is easier to
study [4]. In order to get an accurate electrical
characterization of the skin-electrode contact, it is necessary
Electrical characterization of biological media generally
passes through impedance measurements which is very
popular technique in biomedical field [7, 8]. In this work, it
is used to evaluate the complex impedance of the electrode-
electrolyte-skin interface over a wide range of frequencies,
producing a spectrum showing the change of impedance and
its phase within frequency. From these curves and using an
optimization program written in Matlab source software for
calculating resistive and capacitive components, electric
models are builded.
We carried out two sets of measurements from 0.05Hz to
1MHz using a Zurich Instruments HF2IS Impedance
analyzer [9] and commercial pre-gelled Ag/AgCl surface
disposable electrodes. These electrodes are the most
common electrodes in biomedical recording because of its
highly stable half-cell potential.
A. Electrode impedance
The first measurement set include a pair of Ag/AgCl
electrodes placed face to face. This experiment provides
information about the electrode-electrolyte interface, so it
models the electrode behavior. A sinusoidal voltage is
injected through one electrode from the analyzer; the
resulting signal is detected by the second one which is

978-1-4799-0251-4/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 49

connected to the input of the impedance analyzer. This A good electrode, from the electrical point of view will
operation was repeated three times using three electrode have very low value of R1 [11]. From Fig.1 and Fig.2, it is
pairs. Nevertheless, this type of characterization can be very noticed that the magnitude of the impedance is roughly equal
useful to check if the electrode is outdated. R1+R2 at very low frequencies, whereas at higher
frequencies C1 bypasses the effect of R1 so the impedance is
B. Skin/electrode impedance now close to R2. At frequencies between these two limits, the
This measurement set concerned electrodes placed on the impedance is influenced by the value of the parallel
body surface of the subject. The two electrodes were placed capacitance; therefore it decreases with increasing
on the forearm few centimeters from each other without any frequencies. The phase angle decreases from about 0° then
skin preparation. One electrode is fed with a sinusoidal after reaching a peak value it increases again toward 0°.
voltage from the analyzer, while the second is used to detect To calculate the resistive and capacitive components of
the resulting signal from the skin and is then connected to the described impedance model, a program written in Matlab
the input of the analyzer. source software was used. We estimated the shunt resistance
R1 at 314Ω and the series resistance R2 at 118Ω. The
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION frequency at which the reactive component reaches its
maximum value is given by:
A. Electrode impedance measurement
1
The impedance is measured from electrodes placed face f = (1)
to face. Both magnitude and phase are shown in Fig. 1 and 2π .R1 .C1
Fig.2. From these figures, we define the equivalent circuit
model of the electrode-electrolyte impedance as shown in Thus, C1 is evaluated at 160µF and C2 at 60pF.
Fig.3. This circuit model comprises the separate components When the circuit model was simulated with these
for the diffuse layer (R1, C1) and the compact layer (R2, C2) components values; we find that C1 was not well evaluated
as described in [10]. If we combined this impedance with a and we conclude that the value of f must be lower than the
voltage source representing the half-cell potential, we arrive
chosen one. So, parametric study was performed with
to the bioelectrode circuit model.
different values C1 of as shown in the Fig.4 and Fig.5. Table
1 shows the retained impedance parameters.
450

400
Impedance (Ohms)

350
450 measurement
300 simulation C1=160µF
400 simulation C1=250µF
250 simulation C1=300µF
350
Impedance (Ohms)

200
300

150
250

100 200
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
150
Frequency (Hz)
100
Fig. 1. Impedance response of the electrode-electrolyte interface
50
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (Hz)
5

0 Fig. 4. Comparison between the measured data (magnitude) and the

simulation data of circuit with different values of C1
Phase (Deg)

-5

-10 5

-15 0

-5
-20
-10
Phase (Deg)

-25
-15
-30
10
-1 0
10 10
1
10
2 3
10
4
10
5
10
6
10 -20

Frequency (Hz) -25

Measurement
-30 Simulation C1=160µF
Fig. 2. Phase response of the electrode-electrolyte interface Simulation C1=250µF
-35 Simulation C1=300µF
-40
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (Hz)

Fig. 5. Comparison between the measured data (phase) and the simulation
data of circuit with different values of C1
Fig. 3. Equivalent circuit model of the electrode-electrolyte impedance

50
 TABLE I. FACE TO FACE ELCTRODE’S IMPEDANCE PARAMETERS
0

Parameters R1 R2 C1 C2 -10

Face to face
314Ω 118Ω 250µF 60pF -20
electrode

Phase (Deg)
One electrode 157Ω 59 Ω 125µF 30pF -30

-40

B. Skin/electrode impedance measurement -50

-60
The impedance is measured from electrodes placed on -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
the body surface of two subjects (man and woman) where Frequency (Hz)
measurements data are depicted in Fig. 6. From this figure it Fig. 8. Phase response of the electrode-skin interface
can be seen that the impedance of the electrode-skin contact
is higher for woman than for man in low frequency. The By analyzing the magnitude and phase responses of the
conductivity is also various in different parts of the body and electrode-skin contact, we defined the equivalent circuit
is highest in the forehead [12]. However, because of the model of its impedance presented in Fig. 9. The circuit
complexity of the phenomena defining the value of the model comprises the double layer capacitance C1 in parallel
interface’s impedance, this latter is extremely variable from with the charge transfer resistance R1 and a series resistance
one experiment to another. R2 as already described [11][13]. The model’s parameters
In order to model this impedance, we consider only the were estimated following the previous procedure and Table
data measured from woman performed from very low 2 shows the impedance parameters.
frequencies compared to these of man. Both magnitude and
phase responses are given hereafter in Fig.7 and Fig.8.
At very low frequencies the impedance is dominated by
the series combination of R1 and R2 whereas it tends to R2 at
high frequencies. Between these two limits, the impedance is Fig. 9. Equivalent circuit model of the electrode-skin impedance
influenced by the parallel capacitance so it decreases with
increasing frequencies. The phase angle decrease from 0°, TABLE II. ELCTRODE/SKIN’S IMPEDANCE PARAMETERS
reach -60° then it increases toward 0°.
Parameters R1 R2 C1
6
1x10
5
9x10
Measurement data_Woman
Measurement data_Man
value 929KΩ 647Ω 20nF
5
8x10
Impedance (Ohms)

5
7x10
5
The simulation results of the defined model for both
6x10
5
magnitude and phase were compared to the measured data.
5x10
5
4x10
The phase plots (Fig.10) show that the simulation plot
5
3x10
matches the measurements in a small frequency range only;
5
2x10
this indicates that the three element model is not suitable for
5
1x10
describing the electrode-skin impedance [6]. Kaczmarek and
0 Webster presented a more accurate model which describes
10
0 1
10 10
2 3
10
4
10 10
5 6
10 the skin-electrode interface as a double time constant system
Frequency (Hz)
with probably time-varying parameters [14]. In previous
work [6] [14], the magnitude and phase responses returned
Fig. 6. Impedance of the electrode-skin contact in Man and Woman satisfactory results when the double time constant model was
1x10
6
used.
5 10
9x10
5 0 Measure
8x10
Simulation
Impedance (Ohms)

5 -10
7x10
5 -20
6x10
5 -30
5x10
Pase (Deg)

5 -40
4x10
5 -50
3x10
5 -60
2x10
5 -70
1x10
-80
0
-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 -90
Frequency (Hz) -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 7. Impedance response of the electrode-skin interface
Fig. 10. Comparison between the measured and the simulation data
(phase response)

51
 C. Noise Analysis decreases with frequency, both for electrodes placed face to
face and for electrodes placed on the skin. Measurements on
In the recording of biomedical signals, a noise electrodes placed face to face showed that the impedance of
component is introduced by all subsystems in the metal-gel interface presents low impedance value. These
measurement chain. There are two noise sources that are latter imply that the high impedance of electrodes placed on
inherent to the measurement procedure: the electrode noise the skin mainly originates from the gel-skin interface and the
and the amplifier noise. Skin-electrode interface noise was upper skin layer. The electrode voltage noise power spectral
simulated with low noise bioamplifier developed by us [15]. density also appears to originate for the main part, from the
Fig.11 shows the bioamplifier input voltage noise with its gel-skin interface. Electrode-amplifier noise is characterized
inputs shorted, then with impedance presenting the by 1/f spectrum in low frequency range, and a white noise in
electrode-skin interface connected to its inputs. It can be higher frequencies.
clearly seen that the noise in both case has a 1/f character
In future works, the electrode-skin interface must be
with a maximum of about 5µV/√Hz at low frequencies.
modeled using the double time constant system. On the other
However, amplifier voltage noise falls and tends to
hand, for further investigation into the origin of the noise of
16nV/√Hz at higher frequencies along the desired frequency
surface electrodes, the noise of the interface must be
range (of EEG and ECG), while electrode-amplifier noise
measured then compared to the equivalent thermal noise
tends to about 205nV/√Hz. Thus, we notice that the
from the impedance electrode.
significant noise component is introduced by the electrode-
skin interface impedance.
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