Thanks to a stretchy kind of semiconductor, researchers were able to create a robotic hand that could enable doctors to remotely diagnose and treat people all over the world.
The new rubbery semiconductor, which has high carrier mobility, features soft, stretchy and rubbery electronics and integrated systems that mimic the mechanical softness of biological tissues. The semiconductor could be used for a variety of applications, with smart skin and the medical robotic hand just two possibilities. Additionally, the semiconductor material can be easily scaled up for manufacturing.
A medical robotic hand is just one potential application for the rubbery electronics reported by researchers. Source: University of Houston
Traditional semiconductors are brittle and require special mechanical accommodations to be used in stretchable electronics. Previous stretchable electronics featured low carrier mobility and complicated fabrication requirements. The new material attempts to overcome these issues.
The team added small amounts of metallic carbon nanotubes to the rubbery semiconductor P3HT. This improved the carrier’s mobility, which controls the performance of semiconductors and transistors.
Simple to produce, the commercially available semiconductor material is first dissolved in a solution and dropped in water. The chemical solvent evaporates from the solution and creates improved semiconductor properties. The resulting electronics have improved electrical performance, which was retained when the semiconductor is stretched by 50%.
The new scalable manufacturing method creates high-quality composite films for consistent semiconductors that are entirely rubbery.
A paper on this technology was published in Science Advances.
