Skin electronics from scalable fabrication of an intrinsically stretchable transistor array

• Published in: Nature (London) 2018-03, Vol.555 (7694), p.83-88
• Main Authors: Wang, Sihong, Xu, Jie, Wang, Weichen, Wang, Ging-Ji Nathan, Rastak, Reza, Molina-Lopez, Francisco, Chung, Jong Won, Niu, Simiao, Feig, Vivian R., Lopez, Jeffery, Lei, Ting, Kwon, Soon-Ki, Kim, Yeongin, Foudeh, Amir M., Ehrlich, Anatol, Gasperini, Andrea, Yun, Youngjun, Murmann, Boris, Tok, Jeffery B.-H., Bao, Zhenan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/146; 142/126; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/54/990; 639/301/923/1028; Amorphous silicon; Carrier mobility; Current carriers; Deformability; Design and construction; Digital electronics; Electrodes; Electronic devices; Electronic equipment; Electronics; Fabrication; Formability; Health services; Humanities and Social Sciences; Innovations; Interfaces; letter; Medical treatment; multidisciplinary; Physiological aspects; Polymers; Science; Semiconductor devices; Semiconductors; Sensor arrays; Sensors; Silicon wafers; Skin; Stretchability; Structural engineering; Transistors; Ultraviolet radiation
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/nature25494

A scalable process is described for fabricating skin-like electronic circuitry that can be bent and stretched while retaining desirable electronic functionality. Electronics at a stretch Flexible electronics have a range of potential medical applications, particularly for devices that need to integrate seamlessly with humans. But to get the most out of such systems, the circuitry ideally needs to be stretchable as well as flexible, much like human skin. Zhenan Bao and colleagues have been exploring a strategy for achieving this combination of properties using polymeric electronic materials that are intrinsically stretchable. Now they demonstrate a scalable fabrication process in which such materials can be used to produce large-area, skin-like, electronic circuitry that can be bent and stretched while retaining its desirable electronic functionality. Skin-like electronics that can adhere seamlessly to human skin or within the body are highly desirable for applications such as health monitoring 1 , 2 , medical treatment 3 , 4 , medical implants 5 and biological studies 6 , 7 , and for technologies that include human–machine interfaces, soft robotics and augmented reality 8 , 9 . Rendering such electronics soft and stretchable—like human skin—would make them more comfortable to wear, and, through increased contact area, would greatly enhance the fidelity of signals acquired from the skin. Structural engineering of rigid inorganic and organic devices has enabled circuit-level stretchability, but this requires sophisticated fabrication techniques and usually suffers from reduced densities of devices within an array 2 , 10 , 11 , 12 . We reasoned that the desired parameters, such as higher mechanical deformability and robustness, improved skin compatibility and higher device density, could be provided by using intrinsically stretchable polymer materials instead. However, the production of intrinsically stretchable materials and devices is still largely in its infancy 13 , 14 , 15 : such materials have been reported 11 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , but functional, intrinsically stretchable electronics have yet to be demonstrated owing to the lack of a scalable fabrication technology. Here we describe a fabrication process that enables high yield and uniformity from a variety of intrinsically stretchable electronic polymers. We demonstrate an intrinsically stretchable polymer transistor array with an unprecedented device density of 347 transistors per square centimetre.