Pathway to Developing Permeable Electronics

Abstract

Permeable electronics possess the capability of permeating gas and/or liquid while performing the device functionality when attached to human bodies. The permeability of wearable electronics can not only minimize the thermophysiological disturbance to the human body but also ensure a biocompatible humandevice interface for long-term, continuous, and real-time health monitoring. To date, how to simultaneously acquire high permeability and multifunctionality is the major challenge of wearable electronics.Here, a critical discussion on the future development of wearable electronics toward permeability is presented. In this perspective, the critical metrics of permeable electronics are discussed, and the historical evolution of wearable technologies is reviewed with highlights of representative examples. The materials and structural strategies for developing high-performance permeable electronics are then analyzed.

Toward a new generation of permeable skin electronics

“…Further, the lack of breathability largely reduces the sensitivity of the monitoring signals due to sweat accumulation. 24 Here, we will introduce representative approaches to evaluate the permeability of skin-mountable electronics.…”

“…Representative approaches for device structures in gas-permeable skin-mountable electronics include ultrathin and porous form factors. 24 However, if a device is thin enough to realise breathability, the mechanical properties are usually weak. Similarly, a porous-designed breathable electronic device is usually thick and layered-based, leading to limited skin compliance.…”

“…23 Such developed breathable skin-mountable electronics can realize the continuous, long-term collection of high-fidelity bioelectrical, biochemical, and biophysical information. 23,24…”

“…23 Such developed breathable skinmountable electronics can realize the continuous, long-term collection of high-fidelity bioelectrical, biochemical, and biophysical information. 23,24 Together with advanced material and structure design, various breathable skin-mountable electronics have been reported, such as bioelectrical sensors, 25 temperature sensors, 26 humidity and hydration sensors, 27 strain and pressure sensors, 28 and energy harvesting and storage devices. 29 Fig.…”

Elasto-Plastic Design of Ultrathin Interlayer for Enhancing Strain Tolerance of Flexible Electronics

“…The rapid development of flexible electronics in the past decade has enabled a wide variety of emerging applications ranging from a soft human–machine interface, electronic skin, − energy, , and implantable bioelectronics to flexible and stretchable displays − and smart wearables. − Because flexible devices are highly deformable, materials in these devices experience different degrees of tensile strains during the bending, stretching, compressing, and twisting of the devices. , While polymeric substrates used for fabricating the devices are often compliant enough, other materials such as metals, inorganic semiconductors, and ceramics are too brittle to withstand the tensile strains. Unfortunately, despite the intensive effort to develop various types of soft materials in the past decades, these brittle materials are still indispensable in most device applications. − For example, a metal is widely used as the electrode, interconnect, lead, and contact in flexible electronics due to the intrinsically high conductivity and excellent compatibility with conventional manufacturing processes .…”