Two-Dimensional Materials Based On-Skin-Wearable Electronics

In the last two years we have witnessed the quick transition to remote and virtual life in various aspects such as education, work, healthcare and even entertainment. We have realized how reliable and high-performance wearables can influence the quality and accessibility of health care.<br/>Ideal and practical wearables can be imagined as accurate, multifunctional, low weight, comfortable to wear, affordable and even visually imperceptible to offer privacy and mental comfort to users.<br/> Conventional electronics made of rigid metal and semiconductors are performant and well-established but when it comes to sensing and functioning at the interface with soft tissues and body, they lack the mechanical compatibility results in poor sensing and electrical performance, irritation and in the case implantable devices creating scar tissue and triggering foreign body reaction. <br/>Two-dimensional materials are a group of atomically thin materials with a wide range of electrical, optical and mechanical properties that make them excellent candidates for making on-skin wearable electronics and sensors. <br/>Here, we present: 1) a group of skin-soft, ultrathin, stretchable and visually imperceptible on-skin-wearable sensors for physiological sensing that can conform to the microscopic features of skin; and 2) a methodology for fabricating two dimensional based ultrathin and stretchable electronics circuits, mechanically compatible with such skin-soft wearable sensors. Minimizing local strain in the vicinity of the electronic circuit’s active devices using our strategy, results in stable operation of the circuits under various forms of deformation during daily activities. This platform paves the way for the fabrication of fully integrated ultrathin stretchable and visually imperceptible wearable sensor-circuits.