Park 2014
Park 2014
Park 2014
KEYWORDS: ultrathin transistor . tactile sensor . graphene . conformal device . wearable electronics
R
ecently, conformal devices on uneven also been demonstrated as a solution that can
surface have garnered great popular- absorb any strain by bending/flexing of the
ity due to their multifaceted applica- devices.810 Although these approaches are
tions in healthcare monitoring systems13 potentially useful in three-dimensional elec-
and wearable electronics.4 Such devices tronics systems, its application is restricted to
are hardly achievable using a sophisticated the objects with simple curvatures. Another
planar layout; rather, the fabrication of them approach for conformal devices involves in-
strictly requires a new design of device geom- terconnecting a series of rigid active devices
etry and a relevant adopt of materials that with “shock-absorbing” bridges that can ac-
can compensate structural imperfections. commodate both compressive and tensile
Thus, most of the current research has been stresses.1115 This method has been exempli-
focusing on how to maximize the structural fied in a course of applications, including elec-
compliance of “implanted” devices with re- tronic eye cameras,16 stretchable transis-
gards to the environment; strain is regarded tors,17 and flexible solar cells.18 Unfortunately,
as one of the major critical challenges to various additional processes must be accom-
overcome, the solution of which is not fully panied to achieve intended results in this
provided yet, especially as for the mechano- case. Prestraining or premolding substrate
compatibility of the devices with respect to can limit the range of available applications.
in vivo circumstances. Indeed, the delicate tolerance to the colli-
Strain, which can seriously degrade de- sion and friction stemming from out-of-plane
vice performance, is locally generated and buckling of the interconnector becomes a
distributed across the device in a physical significant hurdle for this method. Recently,
contact with a rough surface. In an effort to epidermal electronics based on the combina- * Address correspondence to
ahnj@yonsei.ac.kr.
address this issue, various approaches have tion of ultrathin silicon membrane with fila-
been developed. The representative methods mentary serpentine metal mesh have been Received for review June 25, 2014
have been used by employing elastic conduc- extensively exploited; some applications of and accepted July 29, 2014.
tors composed of elastic rubbers and conduc- these systems are medical sensors to monitor
Published online July 29, 2014
tive materials such as micrometer-sized silver body temperature3 and neural/electrophysio- 10.1021/nn503446f
flakes, metal wires and carbon nanotubes.57 logical signals.2,4,19 Although there are con-
Net-shaped and fractured metallic film has siderable advantages with established silicon C 2014 American Chemical Society
As a result, the 2D Raman band corresponding gra- the flat, sloped, and valley positions, respectively
phene did not reveal any noticeable shifts in each (Supporting Information, Figure S9). The relatively
region, indicating that an undetectable level of strain low mobility of the UT-GFETs may have resulted from
was applied to the graphene (Supporting Information, the poor interfacial properties of the SU-8 epoxy gate
Figure S8).40 The transfer characteristics of the devices insulator and graphene.
were subsequently measured from UT-GFETs posi- Another notable advantage of the conformal UT-
tioned in different regions of the hide. The drain bias GFETs is their good mechanical stretchability across
was fixed at 0.01 V and the gate voltage was swept three-dimensionally curved surfaces. Curved substrates
from 10 to 20 V. Since the device configurations are coated with the UT-GFETs could consume the external
not uniform, statistical analysis of electrical property strain rather than transferring it to the device by trans-
was carried out from 50 devices. Black, red, and blue forming and flattening the surface shape. The stretch-
lines indicate the representative transfer characteris- ability of the device was examined by measuring the
tics of the transistor from flat, sloped, and valley deformations of the UT-GFETs using SEM (Figure 5(a)).
positions, respectively. Interestingly, the transistors As the substrate was stretched up to 4%, the uneven
exhibited similar electrical characteristics on each loca- surface gradually flattened, and only fine vertical wrin-
tion. This indicates that the geometry of hide cannot kles were generated due to the Poisson effects. Con-
greatly influence on the electrical transport property of sequently, the GFETs remained stable under external
UT-GFETs. It is considered that the thickness of the stretching without compromising the physical integrity
device with a few tens of nanometers and wet transfer of the device, as has been observed in wavy structured
method based on surface tension of water can mini- devices.12,13 However, the device located on valley
mize the stress to the GFET when formed on bumpy region was preferentially delaminated from the hide at
substrate.1,38 Undoubtedly, the robust feature of gra- serious stretching because relatively large deformation
phene against external strain plays an indispensable role occurred first in a valley region. This failure can be
to realize conformal device. As shown in Figure 4(c,d), controlled by improving an adhesion between a device
the transistors operated uniformly overall, regardless of and a substrate. The practical feasibility of using con-
the location on hide. The calculated average hole and formal UT-GFETs as wearable electronics was demon-
electron mobilities were 695 ( 41 and 379 ( 13, 692 ( strated by monitoring the electrical characteristic of a
24 and 402 ( 30, and 701 ( 22 and 398 ( 12 cm2/V 3 s on substrate during folding and twisting, which are the
Figure 6. (a) Photographs of a tactile sensor consisting of ultrathin graphene strain gauges on the animal hide (left),
geometric structure of graphene strain gauge (top right), SEM image of graphene strain gauge on animal hide (bottom right).
(b) The pressure map measured by the tactile sensor when a gentle touch of 9 kPa was applied to the sensing area.
basic deformation modes applied by the skin surface displayed stable mechanical durability until 130 re-
as a human body moves (Figure 5(b)). The degrees of peated folding but it showed somewhat vulnerable
bending and twisting in the mechanical tests were behavior at twisting deformation (∼80 cycles). It is sus-
set on the basis of the actual hide deformations that pected that the partial slip or delamination may occur
occur during elbow bending (Supporting Information, between transistor and substrate due to sheer force
Figure S10). Figure 5(c) showed the mobility variations during twisting test, destroying the device. Although
and endurance cycles of a UT-GFET device in a flat the stretchability of the UT-GFETs in conformal contact
configuration and in a bent or twisted configuration with the hide was moderate, it could be increased by
(bending radii: 0.6 cm and twist angle: 25). The mobility transferring the as-fabricated device to a more grooved
variations were statistically analyzed on 25 randomly surface.
selected devices working under identical stresses. As The presented approach to realize mechanically
a result, the mobility of the GFETs did not vary signifi- compliant device is not only useful for transistor appli-
cantly regardless of the bending and twisting deforma- cation but can be applied for various sensing devices.
tion. Unfortunately, we were not able to calculate the To demonstrate the feasibility of using this ultrathin,
exact stress value of device on hide, because the uneven conformable graphene-based device as a tactile sen-
surface can suppress the applied strain by unfolding the sor, we fabricated a 4 4 array with graphene-based
wrinkles; it is carefully estimated that the effective stress resistive strain gauges on an animal hide (Figure 6(a)).
applied to the device is not high. Moreover, the devices The detail fabrication and measurement steps were