A team of researchers from the University of Houston College of Engineering (USA) has revealed a breakthrough in extensible electronics thanks to a new artificial skin that allows a robotic hand to perceive the difference between hot and cold, thereby which, in turn, could serve a wide range of biomedical devices for humans.
The work, published in the journal Science Advances , describes a new mechanism for generating elastic electronics, a process that relies on simple materials – easy to get – and that could be expanded for commercial production.
This work is the first to create a semiconductor in a composite rubber format, designed to allow electronic components to retain functionality, even after the material is stretched by up to 50% , the authors explain.
Towards elastic electronics
“It is the first semiconductor in compound rubber format that allows stretching without any special mechanical structure, clarifies Cunjiang Yu, leader of the work.
Yu explains that traditional semiconductors are quite fragile and their use in materials that have the ability to stretch has required a complicated system of mechanical accommodations. Without a doubt, a more complex and less stable process (also more expensive) than this new sensitive electronic skin.
“Our strategy has advantages for simple, scalable manufacturing, with high-density integration, tolerance to large deformations, and low cost,” says Yu.
Yu and the other researchers, Hae-Jin Kim, Kyoseung Sim, and Anish Thukral, created the electronic skin and used it to demonstrate that a robotic hand could sense both the temperature of hot water and ice water in a mug. That’s how it went. This innovative electronic skin was also able to interpret computer signals sent to the robotic hand and reproduce the signals as sign language (American, in this case)
Elastic Composite Semiconductor
“The robotic skin can translate the gesture into legible letters that a person like me can understand and read,” Yu said.
Artificial skin is just one application. Researchers believe that the discovery of a material like this that is both soft, flexible, stretchable, and capable of twisting or twisting, will affect the future development of wearable electronics, including health monitors, medical implants and man-machine interfaces.
The elastic composite semiconductor was prepared using a silicon-based polymer known as polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS, and tiny nano-fires to create a solution that hardened into a material that used the nanowires to carry electrical current.
“We anticipate that this elastic composite semiconductor strategy will advance the development of stretchable semiconductors, and will improve extensible electronics for a wide range of applications, such as artificial skins, biomedical implants and surgical gloves,” the researchers say to the journal Science. Advances.
Reference: Hae-Jin Kim, Kyoseung Sim, Anish Thukral, Cunjiang Yu. Rubbery electronics and sensors from intrinsically stretchable elastomeric composites of semiconductors and conductors. Science Advances, September 2017; 3 (9): e1701114 DOI: 10.1126 / sciadv.1701114
