"3D Printing Creates Skin-Tight Fit" Domestic Researchers Develop 'Electronic Skin' Technology

'Revolutionary Change' in Skin Electronics such as Wearable Sensors
KIST Research Team Publishes Paper in 'Nature Electronics'
"For Sensors and Human-Electronic Device Interfaces"

Domestic researchers have succeeded in realizing 'skin electronics' that are soft and elastic like skin and rubber, unlike the rigid conventional silicon semiconductors. This technology can be freely applied to sensors and neural circuit interfaces, and is expected to be utilized in commercializing human-machine interfaces that closely adhere to the human body.

On the 21st, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that Dr. Seungjun Jeong's research team at the Soft Convergence Materials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) succeeded in implementing user-customized free-form skin electronics using a novel omnidirectional printing process technology. The research results were published as a cover paper in the international journal Nature Electronics on the same day.

Skin electronics refer to electronic devices that are soft and stretchable like human skin. They can adhere to human skin and organs to detect real-time bio-signals with high precision that were previously difficult to sense, and can replace various functions of the skin. In particular, they are attracting attention as interfaces between the human body and electronic devices, which had limitations with conventional rigid silicon semiconductor-based electronic components. When implanted in organs such as the brain to exchange signals with computers, they can minimize side effects and maximize performance.

The research team developed a technology that can directly draw the core material of skin electronics, soft conductors, in three dimensions. Using this, they developed free-form skin electronics that operate stably even under mechanical deformation. Although existing technologies could produce circuits with three-dimensional structures using conductive ink, they had limitations such as easily breaking or performance degradation due to external shocks and mechanical deformation. The research team succeeded in creating a soft conductive material that enables omnidirectional free 3D printing while drastically reducing nozzle clogging by utilizing the emulsification action of ink that disperses a different liquid that does not mix with it as fine particles in a certain liquid.

The soft electrodes developed by the research team maintained high conductivity even when stretched over 150%, and can produce complex three-dimensional stretchable circuits customized for users. The possibility of mass production is already being reviewed through a specialized materials company. If applied in wearable and biomedical devices, soft robotics, and the printing industry, significant ripple effects are expected.

Dr. Jeong stated, "This can contribute to creating wearable devices with new form factors that go beyond the limitations of conventional standardized electronic device designs," adding, "It can be utilized in fields such as the Internet of Things, interfaces for virtual and augmented reality, and bio-interfaces."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.