Tutorials

The growth of flexible and wearable electronics commensurate with the proliferation of microelectronic devices is enabling high impact applications in healthcare and robotics. However, as such electronic devices increase in number, an increasingly urgent need to create materials and devices that can be part of a circular or self repairable economy becomes critical. In this talk, I will discuss using organic hybrid materials science and engineering approaches 1–3 as a way to scale skin-like electronic devices for more sustainable technological and societal impact through self-healing or degradability.

According to the projection by Semiconductor Research Corporation and Semiconductor Industry Association, the number of sensor nodes exponentially increases with the development of the Internet of Things. By 2032, the number of sensors is expected to be ~45 trillion, which will generate >1 million zettabytes (10²⁷ bytes) of data per year. 

Flexible and stretchable solar cells have attracted an increasing amount of interest in the past decade due to their ever-expanding range of applications from wearables and foldable electronics, to buildings and vehicles, among others. In this tutorial, we will discuss the different inorganic active materials that are used in the development of flexible and stretchable photovoltaic devices.

E-tattoos are a type of wearable technology that use flexible and stretchable electronics to conform to the soft, deformable and curvilinear surface of human skin. They can be hair-thin, skin-soft, and noninvasive, making them a promising alternative to traditional wearables like smart watches and rings. This tutorial will cover the materials, design, manufacturing, and functionalities of emerging e-tattoos. It will also introduce their potential applications in telemedicine, mobile health, human-robot interactions and fashion. Existing challenges and future directions will be discussed at the end. Attendees are encouraged to ask questions and share their own ideas during the presentation.

In this tutorial, I will discuss how attributes of screen printing and laser patterning techniques can be leveraged for developing new classes of flexible, stretchable, and selfhealing devices with applications in electrochemical sensing. I will discuss key advances in this field with specific examples of wearable and implantable sensors.