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Next Generation View: Application of Electronic Skin

Prof. T. Someya (University of Tokyo, Japan) says, "Our skin display exhibits simple graphics with motion, because it is made from thin and soft materials, and can be deformed freely."

Recently, scientists and researchers were on to keep interest to develop flexible artificial electronic skin (e-skin) with human-like sensory capabilities such as temperature, pressure, displacement, pulse, electrocardiograph or tactile sensing, etc. Ideally, e-skin is waterproof, stretchable, and demonstrates the self-healing capability of typical living tissues. The development of e-skins was interconnected with various electronic devices and power modules that provide the desired functionality is actively being carried out by various research groups [1]. Even though this study on sensory functions of e-skin has remained achieved significant progress, the green energy supply for wearable electronics have remains a technical challenge. Indeed of a foldable and flexible electronic device in an ultrathin level, it reflects the bio-compatibility and affordable materials with eco-friendly.

Silk protein is a promising material for on-skin and implantable electronic devices. Even though it has good bio-degradability and biocompatibility, the poor thermal stability limits in application.

J. Huang et al., have expressed the robust and heat-resistant silk fibroin composite membranes (SFCMs), which was synthesized by mesoscopic doping of regenerated silk fibroin (SF) via the interactions between SF and polyurethane. Surprisingly, the obtained SFCMs express high transmittance (> 90%), and can endure the tensile test (> 200%) and thermal treatment (up to 160 °C) [2].

On seeing the advantages, traditional micromachining techniques, such as inkjet printing, can be carried out to print flexible circuits on such a protein substrate. SFCMs are constructed with two nanofibers (NFs) using Ag NFs and Pt NFs networks to function as heaters and temperature sensors, respectively. They have identified that Ag NFs network as the heater shows high thermal resistance, heating cyclicity, tensile stability (stretching to 75% with uniform heating distribution) while the Pt NFs network as the temperature sensor exhibits temperature sensitivity (0.205% °C−1 ), reliability, and rapid response ( < 2 s). 

Figure 1. Photographic images of the PBES attaching to the human neck and hand closely [2].

In addition, the integrated protein-based electronic skin (PBES) exhibits high thermal stability and temperature sensitivity (0.205% °C-1). This PBES (Figure 1) is also inflammation-free and air-permeable so that it can directly be laminated on human skin for long-term thermal management.

J. Yuan et al, have been supported to wearable electronics for personal healthcare and eco-friendly awareness which are attracting scenarios with great challenges. A self-powered electronic skin (e-skin) system with multiple sensations as well as data processing and data visualization was developed [3].

They have also mentioned about the core component which is a hand-shaped flexible thermoelectric generator functionalized as e-skin, which not only harvests energy from body heat to supply power for the entire e-skin system, but also plays a role of multisensory receptor. The multisensory receptor concept is been detailed with the following content:

1. Configuration of the e-skin system (Figure 2),

2. Design of F-TEG for energy supply,

3. Design of the overall e-skin system,

4. Multiple sensing capabilities of the e-skin system.

 

Figure 2. Self-powered multifunction of a hand shaped e-skin system design [3].

The research key point is the e-skin systems composed were of f-TEG and the tailor designed circuit system. The f-TEG works not only as a power generator, but also as a multisensory receptor. At first, the f-TEG was attached to a human hand which generates a voltage of about 30–100 mV by thermoelectric conversion from body heat. Then, the output voltage of the f-TEG is boosted to a voltage of 2–3 V by a boost converter liquid crystal display. It represents the first demonstration of a multisensory e-skin system consisting of self-powered sensors and sensor system powered by f-TEG, which implements multiple perceptions, data processing, and visualization.

 On the summary of smart e-skin applications,

  • PBES and its stable structure allow for worldwide applications in human–machine interactive technologies, skin-mountable devices, and healthcare monitoring.
  • An advantageous approach to enhance the sensory perception of the human hand which demonstrates promising potential of applications in the repair of skin injury, wearable healthcare devices, and robots.

 Reference:                                                                                                     

  1. M. Kaltenbrunner et al., Nature 499, 458 (2013).

  2. J. Huang et al., Adv. Funct. Mater. 1910547, 1 (2020).

  3. J. Yuan et al., Adv. Mater. Technol. 2000419, 1 (2020).

Blog Written By

Dr. K. RAJKUMAR

Central University of Tamilnadu 

Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu, India

Editors

Dr. A. S. Ganeshraja

Dr. S. Chandrasekar

Reviewers

Dr. Y. Sasikumar

Dr. S. Thirumurugan

 

 

 

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Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 6, 2020 at 1:35 PM

    really very 9nformative, we await it for getting commercialisation of technology, so issues like left over scars after burning, or some deadly skin disease can be covered up.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dr. K RajkumarSeptember 9, 2020 at 8:50 PM

    Thank you for your comments. Warm welcome by Scientific News Blog Team.

    ReplyDelete

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