Stretchy, Rubbery Integrated Electronic Circuits and Sensing Devices Based on High-Performance Rubbery Semiconducting Nanocomposites

Abstract

Stretchable electronics has expanded the application scope of the electronics and sensors particularly for health monitors, medical implants, artificial skins and human-machine interfaces. To accommodate the mechanical stretchability to nonstretchable electronic materials, the structural engineering design from special mechanical structures or architectures has been widely exploited. An alternative route to eliminating the burden of constructing dedicated architectures and the associated sophisticated fabrication processes is to build stretchable electronics from rubbery electronic materials, which have potential toward scalable manufacturing, high-density device integration, and large strain tolerance. Here, we report a low voltage operational (< -3 V) high performance rubbery electronics including a field effect transistors (FETs), integrated circuit (inverter, NOR, and NAND gate), and an active matrix with pressure sensor based on all rubbery electronic components; semiconductors, electrodes, and gate dielectrics. For the high-performance devices, the semiconductor material (P3HT nanofibril and PDMS composite) is doped with multiwall carbon nanotubes, by dry transfer to enhance the field-effect mobility. The FETs and circuits show a normal operation under the mechanical stretching strain of up to 50%. The approach to constructing integrated circuits and active matrix all from elastomeric rubbery electronic materials will move forward the advancement of stretchable electronics for a wide range of applications, such as artificial skins, biomedical implants, and wearable applications.