Flexible electronics allow us to cover robots and humans with stretchy sensors

By Takao Someya and Tokio University

10 years ago
A research group at the University of Tokyo created a flexible electronic mesh and wrapped it around the mechanical bones of a robotic hand

 The Group had dreamed of making an electronic skin,

embedded with temperature and pressure sensors, that could be worn by a robot.

Today the group still working intensively on e-skin, but

our focus is now on applying it directly to the human body such a bionic skin could be used to monitor medical conditions or to provide more sensitive and lifelike prosthetics.

 The first step in making e-skins that can bend around a joint is

figuring out how to provide electronics with better mechanical flexibility. Modern integrated circuits, including the microprocessors inside computers and the thin-film transistors behind display screens, are manufactured on rigid substrates like silicon and glass. So the things built with these chips laptops, flat-panel TVs, and the like are rigid too. Manufacturers have already commercialized flexible circuit boards for those passive components that are mechanically flexible, such as wiring. But rigid elements like silicon chips and chip capacitors are still attached to these flexible boards. To make an e-skin, we need greater flexibility: Not only the wiring but also the substrate and all the circuitry must be bendable. We need electronics that can be rolled up, folded, crumpled, and stretched.

 Thin-film transistors will be one of the key elements in

this electronics revolution. These TFTs can be made of various kinds of semiconductor materials that can be deposited in thin layers, such as amorphous silicon, lowtemperature polycrystalline silicon, organic semiconductors, and carbon nanotubes. And there is a range of materials that can serve as flexible substrates for TFTs, such as ultrathin glass, stainless steel foils, and plastic films.

Which are the materials form the eskin?

Thin-film transistor (TFTs) Thin layer

Thin-film transistor
Thin-film transistors are made with organic semiconductors, theyre the
key element from e-skin because theyre the sensors for pressure and temperature.

However they need a surface to stand on the prosthetic hand this

question open a new way in the research...

Where are the transistors layed on?

The research to find a proper material to make a surface
for the transistors was in a range between the next materials:
1. Ultrathin glass 2. Stainless steel foils 3. Plastic films

At the end, the research conclude deciding than plastic

films were the best material to work with

Why the plastic films were the best?

Theyre rugged and hold up well against mechanical
strain.

They cost very little Theyre compatible with new manufacturing processes
that can produce large, flexible sheets of electronic materials

 Now know what shapes e-skin and where are they lay on.
The question now is, How the transistors and the plastic film get together?

 Its simple, the transistors are printed on the plastic film. By the elements that shapes transistors and
characteristics from plastic films they need to be printer in a controled environment.

For what good is that?

Such a bionic skin could be used to monitor medical conditions or to provide more sensitive and lifelike prosthetics.

Thin-film transistors dont just allow electronics to be flexiblethey can also help an e-skin mimic the sensitivity of real skin.

There are more than 2 million pain receptors in a persons skin.

Flexible electronics using organic transistors could serve a range of biomedical applications.

Were experimented with electromyography, the monitoring and recording of electrical activity produced by muscles.

An e - skin could also be sensitive to light or to contain ultrasonic detectors. It's just a matter of adding the appropriate flexible electronic devices.

An ultrasonic skin covering an entire robot body could work as a 360-degree proximity sensor, measuring the distance between the robot and external obstacles. This could prevent the robot from crashing into walls. For humans, it could provide prosthetics or garments that are hyperaware of their surroundings.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

They used wiring layouts that allow the CPU to send commands to the transistors attached to individual pixels based on where they lie in a big conductive grid. Were used column and row numbers to specify the pixels address what reduces the number of connections necessary.

Were fabricated organic transistors and tactile sensors on an ultrathin polymer sheet that measured 1 micrometer thick. This material can withstand repeated bending, crumple like paper, and accommodate stretching of up to 230 percent. Whats more important, it works at high temperatures and in aqueous environments, even in saline solutions, meaning that it can function inside the human body.

Future expectations

 why not build super e-skins that have more tactile abilities than
our own skins? And theres no need to restrict things to refining human capabilities.

 Adding the appropriate flexible electronics permit that

an e-skin could also be light sensitive or contain ultrasonic detectors.

 Besides adding multiple functions to e-skins, its also

important to improve their electronic properties, such as the speed at which signals can be read from the sensors.