In addition, another type of biomechanical measurements involving blood pulsations is being developed using photosensors responsive to the short wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectra. Currently conventional SWIR sensors are limited by complex die transfer and bonding processing. Here we are advancing SWIR photodiodes by using a new generation of narrow bandgap conjugated polymers that are processed by solution processing techniques and allow simple direct deposition. The polymers are processed into bulk heterojunction photodiodes with photoresponse up to wavelength of 1.7 micron. The performances of devices with different polymer structures were compared through metrics including detectivity, quantum efficiency, response time and rectification ratio. Example applications including blood pulse measurements and spectroscopic identification will be demonstrated.