The 2021 flexible and printed electronics roadmap

This roadmap includes the perspectives and visions of leading researchers in the key areas of flexible and printable electronics. The covered topics are broadly organized by the device technologies (sections 1–9), fabrication techniques (sections 10–12), and design and modeling approaches (sections 13 and 14) essential to the future development of new applications leveraging flexible electronics (FE). The interdisciplinary nature of this field involves everything from fundamental scientific discoveries to engineering challenges; from design and synthesis of new materials via novel device design to modelling and digital manufacturing of integrated systems. As such, this roadmap aims to serve as a resource on the current status and future challenges in the areas covered by the roadmap and to highlight the breadth and wide-ranging opportunities made available by FE technologies

3D Printing of Soft Electromechanical Transducers and Their Application in Development of Patient-Specific Organ Models

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. January 2020. Major: Mechanical Engineering. Advisor: Michael McAlpine. 1 computer file (PDF); viii, 157 pages.The ability to mimic nature and biological systems has revolutionized various fields and has inspired a plethora of scientific discoveries to solve human problems. Medicine is among the areas that has vastly benefited from bio-inspired innovations, such as the gecko-inspired adhesive and parasitic worm-inspired microneedle. Driven by the fact that medical errors are among the leading causes of death, several efforts have been focused to create phantoms that mimic the actual patients’ organ with the main purpose of enhancing preoperational planning and surgical outcomes, as well as reducing the risk of intraoperative errors and postoperative complications. Over the past decade, 3D printing technologies have played an important role in fabrication of patient-specific organ phantoms, however, despite being anatomically correct, these 3D printed organ models mostly lack the precise mimicry of the sense and mechanical properties of the biological tissue of interest. In addition, they lack advanced functionalities, such as tactile sensing, to provide quantitative feedback during organ handling which can be a valuable metric in different surgical interventions or for training purposes. This dissertation aims at addressing these two limitations by conducting an investigation at the intersection of soft biomimicking electroactive, and tissue-like material systems and electromechanical transducer design coupled with multi-material, extrusion-based 3D printing process, for primary applications in development of smart, patient-specific organ models. Specifically, the design and development of (i) a tunable silicone-based material system with tissue-like mechanical properties compatible with direct ink writing 3D printing process, (ii) soft electromechanical actuators and sensors based on the biomimicking hydrogel-elastomer hybrid material system, and (iii) coalescence of these concepts for fabrication of patient-specific organ models with integrated functionalities were presented. It is envisioned that these organ models can augment the current practices in a gamut of medical applications, including preoperative planning, clinical training, patient education, and development of next-generation medical devices with the end goal of enhancing surgical outcomes, reducing medical errors, and improving patient safety. In addition, on a long-term basis, the outcomes of this work could contribute to the incorporation of cell-seeded structures into the organ models, thus setting the stage for development of dynamic bionic organs

Supporting data for "3D printed electrically-driven soft actuators"

The data set includes the experimental data and the corresponding code files for 3D printed electrically-driven soft actuators.Soft robotics is an emerging field enabled by advances in the development of soft materials with properties commensurate to their biological counterparts, for the purpose of reproducing locomotion and other distinctive capabilities of active biological organisms. The development of soft actuators is fundamental to the advancement of soft robots and bio-inspired machines. Among the different material systems incorporated in the fabrication of soft devices, ionic hydrogel–elastomer hybrids have recently attracted vast attention due to their favorable characteristics, including their analogy with human skin. Here, we demonstrate that this hybrid material system can be 3D printed as a soft dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with a unimorph configuration that is capable of generating high bending motion in response to an applied electrical stimulus. We characterized the device actuation performance via applied (i) ramp-up electrical input, (ii) cyclic electrical loading, and (iii) payload masses. A maximum vertical tip displacement of 9.78 ± 2.52 mm at 5.44 kV was achieved from the tested 3D printed DEAs. Furthermore, the nonlinear actuation behavior of the unimorph DEA was successfully modeled using an analytical energetic formulation and a finite element method (FEM).U.S. Army Research Office under Award No. W911NF-15-1-0469National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health, Award Number 1DP2EB020537The graduate school of the University of Minnesota, 2017–18 Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowshi

3D printed electrically-driven soft actuators

Soft robotics is an emerging field enabled by advances in the development of soft materials with properties commensurate to their biological counterparts, for the purpose of reproducing locomotion and other distinctive capabilities of active biological organisms. The development of soft actuators is fundamental to the advancement of soft robots and bio-inspired machines. Among the different material systems incorporated in the fabrication of soft devices, ionic hydrogel–elastomer hybrids have recently attracted vast attention due to their favorable characteristics, including their analogy with human skin. Here, we demonstrate that this hybrid material system can be 3D printed as a soft dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) with a unimorph configuration that is capable of generating high bending motion in response to an applied electrical stimulus. We characterized the device actuation performance via applied (i) ramp-up electrical input, (ii) cyclic electrical loading, and (iii) payload masses. A maximum vertical tip displacement of 9.78 ± 2.52 mm at 5.44 kV was achieved from the tested 3D printed DEAs. Furthermore, the nonlinear actuation behavior of the unimorph DEA was successfully modeled using an analytical energetic formulation and a finite element method (FEM)

The 2021 flexible and printed electronics roadmap

This roadmap includes the perspectives and visions of leading researchers in the key areas of flexible and printable electronics. The covered topics are broadly organized by the device technologies (sections 1–9), fabrication techniques (sections 10–12), and design and modeling approaches (sections 13 and 14) essential to the future development of new applications leveraging flexible electronics (FE). The interdisciplinary nature of this field involves everything from fundamental scientific discoveries to engineering challenges; from design and synthesis of new materials via novel device design to modelling and digital manufacturing of integrated systems. As such, this roadmap aims to serve as a resource on the current status and future challenges in the areas covered by the roadmap and to highlight the breadth and wide-ranging opportunities made available by FE technologies