Sensory receptors in human skin transmit a wealth of tactile and thermal signals from external environments to the brain. Despite advances in our understanding of mechano-and thermosensation, replication of these unique sensory characteristics in artificial skin and prosthetics remains challenging. Recent efforts to develop smart prosthetics, which exploit rigid and/or semi-flexible pressure, strain and temperature sensors, provide promising routes for sensor-laden bionic systems, but with limited stretchability, detection range and spatiotemporal resolution. Here we demonstrate smart prosthetic skin instrumented with ultrathin, single crystalline silicon nanoribbon strain, pressure and temperature sensor arrays as well as associated humidity sensors, electroresistive heaters and stretchable multi-electrode arrays for nerve stimulation. This collection of stretchable sensors and actuators facilitate highly localized mechanical and thermal skin-like perception in response to external stimuli, thus providing unique opportunities for emerging classes of prostheses and peripheral nervous system interface technologies.

exhibits high potential for a wide range of bio-electronics applications that need to be mechanically deformable, such as personalized healthcare systems, [4,5] wearable smart displays, [6][7][8] and implantable prosthetic devices, [9][10][11] while rigid electronics suffer in fully exhibiting their original performance on such applications.The evolution of stretchable electronics was initially driven by advancements in human bio-signal sensing technologies. A variety of stretchable sensors, such as thermal sensors (e.g., temperature, thermal conductivity), [12][13][14] mechanical sensors (e.g., strain, pressure), [15][16][17] optical sensors (e.g., pulse oximetry, photoplethysmogram (PPG)), [6,18,19] electrophysiology (EP) sensors (e.g., electroencephalogram (EEG), electrocardiogram (ECG)), [20][21][22] and biochemical sensors (e.g., glucose, pH), [23][24][25][26] have been developed aided by unconventional electronic materials and device designs. As these stretchable sensors tend to mimic the unique mechanical properties of soft and deformable human tissues, stable conformal contact between these sensors and human skin and/or internal organs is achievable. This unique biotic/abiotic interfacing results in outstanding sensing accuracies and extraordinary signal-to-noise ratios that surpass the performance of rigid bio-sensing devices.As stretchable sensor technology has evolved, there has been a growing demand for other stretchable electronic components capable of processing signals retrieved from stretchable sensors. The stretchable electronics research direction has therefore moved toward building stretchable integrated electronic systems that consist not only of stretchable sensory components, but also of other advanced stretchable electronic components for signal processing, feedback actuation, real-time display, wireless communication, and power supply. [27,28] Considerable research effort has been devoted by material scientists and device engineers to achieving fully integrated stretchable electronic systems.The research approaches to such stretchable sensors, additional electronic components, and fully integrated systems are largely categorized by two strategies, namely the "structurebased" and "material-based" approaches. For the structurebased approach, technologies for conventional electronics are utilized to build stretchable electronic systems in which the superb performance of conventional electronics can be fully Stretchable electronics are mechanically compatible with a variety of objects, especially with the soft curvilinear contours of the human body, enabling human-friendly electronics applications that could not be achieved with conventional rigid electronics. Therefore, extensive research effort has been devoted to the development of stretchable electronics, from research on materials and unit device, to fully integrated systems. In particular, material-processing technologies that encompass the synthesis, assembly, and patterning of intrinsically stretchable electronic materials have been ac...

Skin electronics require stretchable conductors that satisfy metallike conductivity, high stretchability, ultrathin thickness, and facile patternability, but achieving these characteristics simultaneously is challenging. We present a float assembly method to fabricate a nanomembrane that meets all these requirements. The method enables a compact assembly of nanomaterials at the water–oil interface and their partial embedment in an ultrathin elastomer membrane, which can distribute the applied strain in the elastomer membrane and thus lead to a high elasticity even with the high loading of the nanomaterials. Furthermore, the structure allows cold welding and bilayer stacking, resulting in high conductivity. These properties are preserved even after high-resolution patterning by using photolithography. A multifunctional epidermal sensor array can be fabricated with the patterned nanomembranes.