bionic skin article.pptx

7/27/2019 Bionic Skin article.pptx

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Flexible electronics allow us to cover robots and humans

with stretchy sensors

By Takao Someya and Tokio University


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10 years agoA research group at the University of Tokyocreated a flexible electronic mesh and wrapped

it around the mechanical bones of a robotic

hand


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The Group had dreamed of making an electronic skin,

embedded with temperature and pressure sensors, thatcould be worn by a robot.

Today the group still working intensively on e-skin, but

our focus is now on applying it directly to the human

body such a bionic skin could be used to monitormedical conditions or to provide more sensitive and

lifelike prosthetics.


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The first step in making e-skins that can bend around a joint isfiguring out how to provide electronics with better mechanical

flexibility. Modern integrated circuits, including the microprocessorsinside computers and the thin-film transistors behind displayscreens, are manufactured on rigid substrates like silicon and glass.So the things built with these chips laptops, flat-panel TVs, and thelike are rigid too.

Manufacturers have already commercialized flexible circuit boards

for those passive components that are mechanically flexible, such aswiring. But rigid elements like silicon chips and chip capacitors arestill attached to these flexible boards. To make an e-skin, we needgreater flexibility: Not only the wiring but also the substrate and allthe circuitry must be bendable. We need electronics that can berolled up, folded, crumpled, and stretched.


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Thin-film transistors will be one of the key elements in

this electronics revolution. These TFTs can be made ofvarious kinds of semiconductor materials that can bedeposited in thin layers, such as amorphous silicon, low-temperature polycrystalline silicon, organicsemiconductors, and carbon nanotubes. And there is a

range of materials that can serve as flexible substratesfor TFTs, such as ultrathin glass, stainless steel foils, andplastic films.


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Which are the materials form the e-skin?

Thin-film transistor (TFTs)

Thin layer


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Thin-film transistor

Thin-film transistors are made with organic semiconductors, theyre thekey element from e-skin because theyre the sensors for pressure and

temperature.

However they need a surface to stand on the prosthetic hand thisquestion open a new way in the research...


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Where are the transistors layed on?

The research to find a proper material to make a surface

for the transistors was in a range between the nextmaterials:

1. Ultrathin glass

2. Stainless steel foils

3. Plastic films

At the end, the research conclude deciding than plasticfilms were the best material to work with


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Why the plastic films were thebest?

Theyre rugged and hold up well against mechanical

strain. They cost very little

Theyre compatible with new manufacturing processesthat can produce large, flexible sheets of electronic

materials


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Now know what shapes e-skin and where are they lay on.The question now is, How the transistors and the plastic

film get together?


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Its simple, the transistors are printed on the plastic film.

By the elements that shapes transistors andcharacteristics from plastic films they need to be printer

in a controled environment.


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For what good is that?

Such a bionic skin could be

used to monitor medical

conditions or to provide

more sensitive and lifelike

prosthetics.


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Thin-film transistors dont just allow

electronics to be flexiblethey can also

help an e-skin mimic the sensitivity of realskin.

There are more than 2 million pain receptors

in a persons skin.


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Flexible electronics using

organic transistors could

serve a range of biomedicalapplications.

Were experimented with

electromyography, themonitoring and recording

of electrical activity

produced by muscles.


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An e - skin could also be

sensitive to light or to

contain ultrasonicdetectors.

It's just a matter of adding

the appropriate flexibleelectronic devices.


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An ultrasonic skin covering an entire robot body

could work as a 360-degree proximity sensor,

measuring the distance between the robot andexternal obstacles. This could prevent the robot

from crashing into walls.

For humans, it could provide prosthetics or garmentsthat are hyperaware of their surroundings.


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They used wiring layouts that allow

the CPU to send commands to the

transistors attached to individualpixels based on where they lie in a

big conductive grid.

Were used column and row numbersto specify the pixels address what

reduces the number of connections

necessary.

HOW DOES IT WORK?


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Were fabricated organic transistors and tactile

sensors on an ultrathin polymer sheet that

measured 1 micrometer thick. This materialcan withstand repeated bending, crumple like

paper, and accommodate stretching of up to

230 percent.

Whats more important, it works at high

temperatures and in aqueous environments,

even in saline solutions, meaning that it can

function inside the human body.


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Future

expectations


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why not build super e-skins that have more tactile abilities than

our own skins? And theres no need to restrict things to refininghuman capabilities.


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Adding the appropriate flexible electronics permit that

an e-skin could also be light sensitive or containultrasonic detectors.


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Besides adding multiple functions to e-skins, its also

important to improve their electronic properties, such asthe speed at which signals can be read from the sensors.

bionic skin article.pptx

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