Conventional bulky and rigid electronics prevent compliant interfacing with soft human skin for health monitoring and human–machine interaction, due to the incompatible mechanical characteristics. To overcome the limitations, soft skin‐mountable electronics with superior mechanical softness, flexibility, and stretchability provide an effective platform for intimate interaction with humans. In addition, soft electronics offer comfortability when worn on the soft, curvilinear, and dynamic human skin. Herein, recent advances in soft electronics as health monitors and human–machine interfaces (HMIs) are briefly discussed. Strategies to achieve softness in soft electronics including structural designs, material innovations, and approaches to optimize the interface between human skin and soft electronics are briefly reviewed. Characteristics and performances of soft electronic devices for health monitoring, including temperature sensors, pressure sensors for pulse monitoring, pulse oximeters, electrophysiological sensors, and sweat sensors, exemplify their wide range of utility. Furthermore, the soft electronic devices for prosthetic limb, household object, mobile machine, and virtual object control are presented to highlight the current and potential implementations of soft electronics for a broad range of HMI applications. Finally, the current limitations and future opportunities of soft skin‐mountable electronics are also discussed.
The interface of biological components with semiconductors is a growing field with numerous applications. For example, the interfaces can be used to sense and modulate the electrical activity of single cells and tissues. From the materials point of view, silicon (Si) is the ideal option for such studies due to its controlled chemical synthesis, scalable lithography for functional devices, excellent electronic and optical properties, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Recent advances in this area are pushing the biointerfaces from the tissue and organ level to the single cell and subcellular regimes. In this progress report, some fundamental studies are described focusing on miniaturizing the bioelectric and biomechanical interfaces. Additionally, many highlighted examples involve freestanding Si‐based nanoscale systems, in addition to substrate‐bound structures or devices; the former offers new promise for basic research and clinical application. In this report, recent developments in the interfacing of neuronal and cardiac cells and their networks are described. Moreover, a brief discussion of the incorporation of semiconductor nanostructures for interfacing nonexcitable cells in applications such as probing intracellular force dynamics and drug delivery is included. Finally, several directions for future exploration are suggested.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10053659
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Advanced Biosystems
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 2366-7478
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract -
The discovery of oxide electronics is of increasing importance today as one of the most promising new technologies and manufacturing processes for a variety of electronic and optoelectronic applications such as next-generation displays, batteries, solar cells, memory devices, and photodetectors[1]. The high potential use seen in oxide electronics is due primarily to their high carrier mobilities and their ability to be fabricated at low temperatures[2]. However, since the majority of oxide semiconductors are n-type oxides, current applications are limited to unipolar devices, eventually developing oxide-based bipolar devices such as p-n diodes and complementary metal-oxide semiconductors. We have contributed to a wide range of oxide semiconductors and their electronics and optoelectronic device applications. Particularly, we have demonstrated n-type oxide-based thin film transistors (TFT), integrating In 2 O 3 -based n-type oxide semiconductors from binary cation materials to ternary cation species including InZnO, InGaZnO (IGZO), and InAlZnO. We have suggested channel/metallization contact strategies to achieve stable and high TFT performance[3, 4], identified vacancy-based native defect doping mechanisms[5], suggested interfacial buffer layers to promote charge injection capability[6], and established the role of third cation species on the carrier generation and carrier transport[7]. More recently, we have reported facile manufacturing of p-type SnOx through reactive magnetron sputtering from a Sn metal target[8]. The fabricated p-SnOx was found to be devoid of metallic phase of Sn from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and demonstrated stable performance in a fully oxide-based p-n heterojunction together with n-InGaZnO. The oxide-based p-n junctions exhibited a high rectification ratio greater than 10 3 at ±3 V, a low saturation current of ~2x10 -10 , and a small turn-on voltage of -0.5 V. In this presentation, we review recent achievements and still remaining issues in transition metal oxide semiconductors and their device applications, in particular, bipolar applications including p-n heterostructures and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices as well as single polarity devices such as TFTs and memristors. In addition, the fundamental mechanisms of carrier transport behaviors and doping mechanisms that govern the performance of these oxide-based devices will also be discussed. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Award No. ECCS-1931088. S.L. and H.W.S. acknowledge the support from the Improvement of Measurement Standards and Technology for Mechanical Metrology (Grant No. 20011028) by KRISS. K.N. was supported by Basic Science Research Program (NRF-2021R11A1A01051246) through the NRF Korea funded by the Ministry of Education. REFERENCES [1] K. Nomura et al. , Nature, vol. 432, no. 7016, pp. 488-492, Nov 25 2004. [2] D. C. Paine et al. , Thin Solid Films, vol. 516, no. 17, pp. 5894-5898, Jul 1 2008. [3] S. Lee et al. , Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 109, no. 6, p. 063702, Mar 15 2011, Art. no. 063702. [4] S. Lee et al. , Applied Physics Letters, vol. 104, no. 25, p. 252103, 2014. [5] S. Lee et al. , Applied Physics Letters, vol. 102, no. 5, p. 052101, Feb 4 2013, Art. no. 052101. [6] M. Liu et al. , ACS Applied Electronic Materials, vol. 3, no. 6, pp. 2703-2711, 2021/06/22 2021. [7] A. Reed et al. , Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 10.1039/D0TC02655G vol. 8, no. 39, pp. 13798-13810, 2020. [8] D. H. Lee et al. , ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, vol. 13, no. 46, pp. 55676-55686, 2021/11/24 2021.more » « less
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