Electronic devices have rapidly evolved into highly flexible, curvilinear and stretchable formats that enable new biomedical, robotic and consumer health related applications. Development of stretchable inorganic/organic electronics, wireless communication modules, biosensors, and soft encapsulating substrates underlie this ascension in recent years. As a result, advances in system-level mechanics with implications for emerging biomedical devices, human-machine interface designs, e-skins, prosthetics, surgical/nonsurgical robotics, plastronics and flexible optical instruments for imaging and telecommunication have been observed.

After more than two decades of academic and industry research, this new class of electronics is beginning to have commercial impact. In order to achieve this translational feat, there are several important challenges that are being addressed today, including the development of effective encapsulation; robust circuity and interconnects; mechanical robustness; long term stability; etc.

This symposium envisions a collection of abstracts that highlight these major challenges in translation and the state-of-the-art designs, experiments and manufacturing approaches, which are beginning to overcome these challenges. The symposium will be open to various groups with a focus on materials and approaches to tailor them for soft and stretchy electronics, medical devices, sensors and systems that exploit soft/stretchable electronics and their applications. The presenters will cover core technology capabilities including synthesis, fabrication, characterization, modeling approaches, along with translational applications that highlight system level deployment in the field.

biomedical elastic properties fatigue film microelectronics polymer sensor strain relationship tissue tribology