Mechanics of Bio-Conformable Devices

Noninvasive or invasive body-conformable devices include epidermal electronics, smart contact lenses, implantable artificial retina, integumentary cardiac membranes and so on. They provide functionalities from biometric sensing to therapeutics, from prosthesis to augmented capabilities. As human organs are soft and curvilinear but electronic devices are conventionally rigid and planar, it is important to understand their mismatch and develop mechanics models to guide the design of the material, structure and interface of body-conformable devices. This talk will present an overview of the field [1] and a few examples related to epidermal electronics [2, 3] and artificial retina [4]. Analytical and numerical models have been established and experimentally validated. In particular, a scaling law has been derived for non-stretchable circular sheets conforming to spherical surfaces with and without cuts [5]. <br/><br/>1. Liu, S., et al., Strategies for body-conformable electronics. Matter, 2022. 5(4): p. 1104-1136.<br/>2. Wang, L. and N. Lu, Conformability of a Thin Elastic Membrane Laminated on a Soft Substrate With Slightly Wavy Surface. Journal of Applied Mechanics, 2016. 83(4): p. 041007.<br/>3. Wang, L., et al., A Thin Elastic Membrane Conformed to a Soft and Rough Substrate Subjected to Stretching/Compression. Journal of Applied Mechanics, 2017. 84(11): p. 111003.<br/>4. Choi, C., et al., Human eye-inspired soft optoelectronic device using high-density MoS2-graphene curved image sensor array. Nature Communications, 2017. 8: p. 1664.<br/>5. Liu, S., et al., Cut-facilitated thin sheets conforming to spherical surfaces. to be submitted, 2022.