Abstract
This paper introduces a liquid-metal integrated system that combines soft electronics materials and engineering designs with advanced near-field-communication (NFC) functionality for human motion sensing. All of the active components, that is, strain sensor, antenna and interconnections, in this device are made of liquid metal, and the device has unique gel-like characteristics and stretchability. Patterning procedures based on selective wetting properties of the reduced GaInSn enable a skin-attachable, miniaturized layout, in which the diameter of the device is less than 2 cm. Electromechanical characterization of the strain sensor and antenna reveals their behaviors under large uniaxial tensile and compressive strains, as well as more complex modes of deformation. Demonstrations of these devices involve their use in monitoring various human motions in a purely wireless fashion; examples include wrist flexion, movements of the vocal cord and finger motion. This simple platform has potential for use in human–machine interfaces for prosthetic control and other applications.
Highlights
Skin-mounted, deformable devices capable of sensing various signals such as strain, pressure and temperature can be used in a variety of applications ranging from health monitoring systems and personal diagnostics to human–machine interfaces.[1]
A skin-attachable, stretchable integrated system based on liquid GaInSn for wireless human motion monitoring with multi-site sensing capabilities
Advanced concepts in stretchable materials and mechanics principles form the basis for devices that can gently laminate onto the soft and curvilinear surfaces of human skin or conformally wrap onto internal organs of the body.[2,3,4,5]
Summary
Skin-mounted, deformable devices capable of sensing various signals such as strain, pressure and temperature can be used in a variety of applications ranging from health monitoring systems and personal diagnostics to human–machine interfaces.[1] Advanced concepts in stretchable materials and mechanics principles form the basis for devices that can gently laminate onto the soft and curvilinear surfaces of human skin or conformally wrap onto internal organs of the body.[2,3,4,5] Gallium-based liquid metals are highly suitable candidates for such applications due to their unlimited deformability while maintaining excellent metallic conductivity. Liquid metal has been widely adopted to make a variety of applications such as stretchable microfluidic antenna,[9,10,11,12,13,14] soft mechanical sensors,[15,16] loudspeakers[17] and ionic current diodes 18 as well as extensive interconnections.[19,20,21,22]
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