Flexible Metamaterial Electronics

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) 2022-12, Vol.34 (52), p.e2200070-n/a
• Main Authors: Jiang, Shan, Liu, Xuejun, Liu, Jianpeng, Ye, Dong, Duan, Yongqing, Li, Kan, Yin, Zhouping, Huang, YongAn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acoustic properties; Elastic waves; Electronic properties; electronic skin; Electronics; Flexible components; flexible electronics; Formability; Materials science; Metamaterials; micro‐/nanofabrication; Optical properties; Poisson's ratio; Stiffness
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202200070

Over the last decade, extensive efforts have been made on utilizing advanced materials and structures to improve the properties and functionalities of flexible electronics. While the conventional ways are approaching their natural limits, a revolutionary strategy, namely metamaterials, is emerging toward engineering structural materials to break the existing fetters. Metamaterials exhibit supernatural physical behaviors, in aspects of mechanical, optical, thermal, acoustic, and electronic properties that are inaccessible in natural materials, such as tunable stiffness or Poisson's ratio, manipulating electromagnetic or elastic waves, and topological and programmable morphability. These salient merits motivate metamaterials as a brand‐new research direction and have inspired extensive innovative applications in flexible electronics. Here, such a groundbreaking interdisciplinary field is first coined as “flexible metamaterial electronics,” focusing on enhancing and innovating functionalities of flexible electronics via the design of metamaterials. Herein, the latest progress and trends in this infant field are reviewed while highlighting their potential value. First, a brief overview starts with introducing the combination of metamaterials and flexible electronics. Then, the developed applications are discussed, such as self‐adaptive deformability, ultrahigh sensitivity, and multidisciplinary functionality, followed by the discussion of potential prospects. Finally, the challenges and opportunities facing flexible metamaterial electronics to advance this cutting‐edge field are summarized. The latest progress of novel flexible electronics with enhancing and innovating properties and functionalities stemming from the conceptual breakthrough of various metamaterials are reviewed; this burgeoning interdisciplinary field is coined as “flexible metamaterial electronics.” The artificial creation of metamaterials is able to break the current fetters and open a new direction for the further development of flexible electronics.