Conspectus
Electronic
devices whose structural and functional features are
inspired by living creatures have unique performance and unconventional
features that are not found in conventional electronic devices. In
addition to such bioinspired electronics, with the rise of new fields
such as personalized healthcare, mobile electronics, and big-data
analysis, biointegrated electronic devices that can collect biomedical
information from the human body through various biosensors and deliver
appropriate therapeutic feedback stimulations in real time on the
spot where immediate treatment is needed have become important. Because
body parts and internal organs of living creatures, including humans,
have curvilinear shapes and comprise mechanically soft tissues, such
bioinspired and biointegrated electronic devices are required to match
the soft and deformable features of biological tissues. Such soft
and deformable features of electronic devices can be achieved by employing
flexible and stretchable materials and unconventional device design
techniques.
These soft materials and deformable device designs
dissipate stress
originating from mechanical deformation of the device and thus retard
crack generation and/or propagation in the device. Recently, technologies
for nanoscale materials have shown a significant level of progress
on their material performance and processing technologies. The nanoscale
dimension of the electronic materials could achieve extremely small
flexural rigidity in comparison to the bulk state of the same materials.
Furthermore, techniques to form a well-percolated network of nanomaterials
in the elastomeric matrix and to build a pathway for the facile electron
and hole transport inside the polymer have induced dramatic performance
advances of soft electronic materials, which led to nanocomposites
that can accomplish both high mechanical deformability and high electrical
performance at the same time. In addition, deformable device designs
such as buckled structures and serpentine designs enhance the flexibility
and stretchability of the device further. Because of their soft and
deformable nature, bioinspired and biointegrated electronic devices
could achieve device structures inspired by living creatures and make
conformal contact to the target tissue for high-quality measurement
of biological signals and real-time feedback treatments.
Herein,
we introduce recent advances in nanoscale materials and
deformable device designs for bioinspired and biointegrated electronics.
First, materials with various geometries (e.g., one-dimensional
(1D) nanowires and nanotubes, two-dimensional (2D) nanomembranes and
nanoflakes, and three-dimensional (3D) networks of nanomaterials in
polymers) are reviewed in terms of their deformable nature. Then,
the representative device design strategies required for achieving
a soft and deformable form factor (e.g., buckling
method, serpentine design, and kirigami technique) are reviewed. Examples
of such state-of-the-art electronic devices are then presented, after
which represe...