Topic: Rubbery Electronics: active electronics and circuits entirely based on rubbers

Electronics that can seamlessly integrate with human body could have significant impact in medical diagnostic, therapeutics. However, seamless integration is a grand challenge because of the distinct nature between electronics and human body. Conventional electronics are rigid and planar, made out of rigid materials. Human body are soft, deformable and curvilinear, comprised of biological materials, organs and tissues. This talk will introduce our solution to address the challenge through the invention of a new class of electronics, namely rubbery electronics. Rubbery electronics is constructed all based on elastic rubber electronic materials of semiconductors, conductors and dielectrics, which possesses tissue-like softness and mechanical stretchability to allow seamless integration with soft deformable tissues and organs. Rubbery electronic materials (particularly semiconductors) and device innovations set the foundation for rubbery electronics. This presentation will feature the development and understanding of rubbery semiconductors, rubbery transistors, integrated electronics, sensors and bioelectronics. In addition, rubbery electronics enabled functional systems will also be demonstrated. As a platform technology, rubbery electronics opens up numerous opportunities for many different fields such as healthcare, cyborgs, and robotics.