UK’s The Engineer Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/24) reports University of California, Berkeley have created what may be the first user-interactive sensor network on flexible plastic.
The ABC News Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/24, Chang) “Technology” blog reported Ali Javey, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the university, said, “It’s called skin, but the material is for more than just prosthetic limbs.” ABC News explained that each “circuit in the e-skin is made up of three parts: a pressure sensor, a transistor, and a pixel-sized organic LED.” According to Chuan Wang, the lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Michigan State University, “the LED’s brightness responds directly to touch.” Wang said, “Applying pressure changes the resistance of the sensor and that modulates the current flowing through the pixel.”
The Time Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/23, Peckham) “Techland” blog reported “the underlying material, made from plastic, is thin as a piece of paper — thin enough that it draws comparisons to human skin and flexible enough to fold into a cylindrical shape, like rolling up a newspaper.”
The Christian Science Monitor Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/23, Barber) reports to make the e-skin, “engineers first hardened a thin layer of polymer on top of a slice of silicon, a semiconductor material.” Next, once “the polymer had toughened, the engineers ran it through with the same materials used in current touchscreens – organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDS), pressure sensors, and transistors.” The researchers “then peeled the wired-up plastic from the silicon base.”
MIT Technology Review Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/24) reports flexible and “bendable electronics would open the door to a multitude of new applications, from medical sensors that wrap around organs to foldable displays.”
The Wired Share to FacebookShare to Twitter (7/24, Drake) “Science” blog and other media sources also covered the story.