An 'imperceptible' electronic skin that can monitor the body, or help people to communicate through touch, is now possible thanks to a new ultra-light and flexible sensor foil, say researchers.
Materials scientist Dr
Martin Kaltenbrunner from theUniversity of
Tokyo, and colleagues, report their findings today in the journal Nature.
"You could even put it on the inside of
the mouth," says Kaltenbrunner. "You would hardly feel that it's
there."
Kaltenbrunner says healthcare and monitoring
systems that measure such things as temperature, moisture or pressure in the
body need to be light, thin and flexible so they don't interfere with the
patient.
"The advantage of this very thin material
is that it doesn't disturb you when you are moving," he says.
Kaltenbrunner and colleagues have for the
first time made an electronic skin from a complex integrated circuit that is
just 2 micrometres thick.
"This is 1/50th the thickness of a human
hair," he says.
Weighing just 3 grams per metre - 27-fold
lighter than office paper - the foil can float through the air like a feather
and is extraordinarily tough, say the researchers.
"You can crumple it, you can throw it
down, you can tramp on it, and the surface doesn't break," says Kaltenbrunner,
adding the foil can be squashed into a radius of just 5 micrometres without
bending.
The researchers tested the foil and found it
also works at 160°C, and in wet environments.
Putting strips of the foil on a flat piece of
stretched rubber could also enable the e-skin to be used, for example, around
joints.
Tactile sensor
Kaltenbrunner and colleagues made the
electronic sensor foil using a lightweight plastic substrate called
polyethylene naphthalate, which last year they used to make solar cells.
On top of this, they placed an array of
organic transistors, covered by another plastic layer containing pressure
sensors.
They then showed that the electronic skin
could act as a tactile sensor on a model of the upper human jaw.
"You could have a touch interface for a
person who could not communicate in any other way," says Kaltenbrunner.
He says the sensors in the top layer of the
foil could be substituted for others, for example those that measure
temperature or moisture.
"Everything your skin can do, can be
replicated in electronic form," says Kaltenbrunner.
Alternatively, light or heat emitting diodes
could be put in this layer, he adds.
Before the technology is used in the body,
however, Kaltenbrunner says it can be used for consumer products, including
wearable electronics, which are currently around 100 micrometres thick.
"You can imagine putting them
anywhere," says Kaltenbrunner. "You can give electronic functionality
to everyday objects."
The research was funded by the Japanese
government and the European Research Council.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/science/
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