Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Flexible Hybrid Electronics

2020; Volume: 32; Issue: 15 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/adma.201905590

1521-4095

John A. Rogers, Xiaodong Chen, Xue Feng,

Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials

Flexible hybrid electronic devices and/or systems integrate functional materials/components in traditional and unusual electronic architectures on flexible substrates to yield systems that have unique properties, unavailable to conventional, wafer-based devices: lightweight construction, conformable mechanics, functional reconfigurability, self-healing constitution, and others. This area of research, which benefits greatly from cross-fertilization among diverse disciplines such as materials science, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and computer science, offers the potential to revolutionize electronic system architectures, advanced manufacturing processes, strategies for integrating semiconductor devices with the human body, and methods for harvesting power and for processing and wirelessly transmitting data. Recent breakthroughs in the area of flexible hybrid electronics not only open up tremendous new avenues for research, but also suggest the potential for broader impacts on human life. Successful outcomes may help to realize a vision in which "everything is connected" as a collection of "Internet of Things", with implications for next-generation wearables, information technology, energy, healthcare, social security, and so on. Industry analysts from IDTechEx predict compound growth rates in flexible hybrid electronics of 30% per year from 2011 to 2028, thereby forming the foundations for further fundamental research in this area. The development of intrinsically stretchable electronic materials is an area of fundamental importance. Both nanoscale materials and organic materials have received increasing attention in recent years because of their outstanding stretchability and the ease of processing. On this topic, Dae-Hyeong Kim and co-workers (article number 1902743) review the latest studies on intrinsically stretchable electronic nanocomposites that generally consist of conducting/semiconducting filler materials inside or on elastomer backbone matrices. Yong Zhu and co-workers (article number 1902343) summarize the design and integration strategies as well as manufacturing techniques for nanomaterial-enabled flexible and stretchable sensing systems. Cunjiang Yu and co-workers (article number 1902417) review recent developments regarding electronics made of elastomeric materials, including rubbery conductors, rubbery semiconductors, and rubbery dielectrics. Wei Shi, Yunlong Guo, and Yunqi Liu (article number 1901493) summarize strategies to achieve flexible organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and discuss their potential applications in biomimetic sensory systems and nervous systems. Lian Duan and co-workers (article number 1902391) review progress regarding the development of light-emitting active materials and fabrication technologies for flexible displays, covering technologies based on organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), quantum-dot light-emitting diodes (QLEDs), and perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs). The emergence of hybrid flexible electronics opens up a series of unprecedented application possibilities with broad interest and potential for impact, especially in biointegrated systems. Biomedical applications, especially those that require a long-term use of the device in the implanted environment, pose additional requirements on device properties (e.g., gas/vapor permeability, biocompatibility, bioresorbability, power consumption, etc.), which must be considered in the design of hybrid flexible electronics. Woon-Hong Yeo and co-workers summarize a comprehensive list of classification rules in mechanical, physicochemical, biocompatible, electrical, and device-level properties that are required in different application scenarios/environments (article number 1901924). Miniaturized wireless devices provide powerful capabilities in neuroscience research, as implantable light sources for simulation/inhibition via optogenetics, as integrated microfluidic systems for programmed pharmacological delivery and as multimodal sensors for physiological measurements. Miniaturized, stretchable antennas represent an essential link between such devices and external systems for control, power delivery, data processing, and/or communication. On this topic, John A. Rogers and co-workers summarize recent advances in the development of flexible and stretchable antennas, highlighting the materials choices, design strategies, and performance characteristics of broad classes of antennas in biointegrated electronics (article number 1902767). Tsuyoshi Sekitani and co-workers discuss progress in the development of mechanically and visually imperceptible sensors with improved performance, with an emphasis on the wireless monitoring of biological signals with a high signal-to-noise ratio (article number 1902684). Active exploration of advanced technologies that combine sensing, stimulation, and high-data-rate information transfer have the potential to enable closed feedback loops that can be responsive, in real time, to biological processes. Artificial intelligence is expected to play an important role in analyzing and processing of the big data associated with long-term monitoring of the wearable and/or implantable sensors. On this topic, Xiaodong Chen, Wei Huang, and co-workers summarize recent developments in artificial sensory memory devices that draw inspiration from biological sensory processing and aim at achieving perceptual intelligence, and they highlight the applications in recognition, manipulation, and learning (article number 1902434). Tae-Woo Lee and co-workers discuss flexible neuromorphic electronics, covering the synaptic characteristics, device structures, and mechanisms of artificial synapses and nerves, and the applications for computing, soft robotics, and neuroprosthetics (article number 1903558). Stéphanie P. Lacour and co-workers summarize recent efforts in the design of conformable hybrid systems for applications as bioelectronics interfaces, and they also highlight the global trends and current trade-offs by analyzing the systems' functional complexity, performance, and maturity (article number 1903904). Damiano G. Barone, George G. Malliaras, and co-workers describe recent efforts in developing implantable electrode arrays capable of housing cultured cells, also referred to as biohybrid implants, with a classification based on the host anatomical location for which they are designed (central nervous system, peripheral nervous system, or special senses) (article number 1903182). We hope that this special issue of flexible hybrid electronics will bring knowledge, insight, and inspiration to readers. The research in this area is highly multidisciplinary, and, therefore, calls upon combined innovations in materials science, chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, biomedical engineering, and computer science. As highlighted by the excellent Reviews and Progress Reports in this special issue, unprecedented opportunities exist in this rapidly growing area, including, for example, the development of intrinsically stretchable electronic materials that offer improved performance with long-term stability, large-scale manufacturing technology suitable for lost-cost, reliable industrial production, novel flexible electrochemical biosensors capable of detecting, simultaneously, a multitude of different biomarkers contained in body fluids in real time, and systems of artificial sensory memory capable of integrating many sensory modalities to achieve concurrent processing, interpretation, and execution. A few technological roadmaps proposed in this special issue, such as the roadmap of the artificial sensory memory to artificial perceptual intelligence proposed by Xiaodong Chen, Wei Huang, and co-workers (article number 1902434), and the one for the successful implementation of next-generation conformable, hybrid bioelectronic systems proposed by Stéphanie P. Lacour and co-workers (article number 1903904), have the potential to be very useful and constructive for researchers in this area. Looking forward, the accelerated growth of development efforts in flexible hybrid electronics will lead to expansive possibilities for technological translation, in which industrialization-based innovations will play crucial roles. Developing novel products based on these relevant technologies will engage the combined expertise of designers, engineers and researchers in the areas of industrial engineering and product design. In this context, potential ethical issues such as culture acceptance should also be taken into account in the investigation. To close, we wish to express our sincere appreciation for the strong support from the editorial team of Advanced Materials, in particular Dr. Jos Lenders and Dr. Peter Gregory. We are also grateful to all the authors who have shared their insights on this exciting and explorative area of flexible hybrid electronics. John A. Rogers is the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Chemistry, and Neurological Surgery at Northwestern University, where he also serves as Director of the Center on Bio-Integrated Electronics. His research focuses on unusual electronic and photonic devices, with an emphasis on biointegrated and bioinspired systems. Xiaodong Chen is the President's Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Professor (by courtesy) of Physics and Applied Physics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. He also serves as Director of Innovative Center for Flexible Devices (iFLEX) and Director of Max Planck – NTU Joint Lab for Artificial Senses at NTU. His research interests include mechano-materials and devices, the integrated nano–bio interface, and cyber–human interfaces. Xue Feng received his B.S. degree from the Department of Engineering Mechanics and the Department of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 1998, and his Ph.D. degree from the Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2003. He is currently a Full Professor and the Director of the Center for Flexible Electronics Technology, Tsinghua University. His research group works on flexible and stretchable electronics for biomedical applications, and solid mechanics.