A

SEMINAR REPORT

ON

Electronics Skin
Submitted

in Partial Fulfillment

for the Award of the Degree of

Bachelor of Technology

in Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering

Session-2015-2019

Submitted To: - Submitted By: -

Department of BHUMIKA RANAWAT
Electronics & Communication Engineering B.Tech- VIII Sem
15/079

i
 CANDIDATE DECELERATION

I hereby declare that the work, which is being presented in the Seminar report, entitled
“Electronics Skin” in partial fulfilment for the award of the Degree of "Bachelor of
Technology" in Electronics and Communication Engineering submitted to the
Department of EC Engineering,
I have not submitted the matter presented in this technical report anywhere for the award
of my other Degree.

BHUMIKA RANAWAT
Branch: ECE
Batch: EC-1
Roll No: 15/079

ii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Inspiration and guidance are valuable in all aspects of life, especially when it comes to
academic. “Experience is the best teacher”, is an old age saying. The satisfaction and
pleasure that accompany the gain of experience would be incomplete without mentioning
the people who made it possible.

I am extremely thankful and grateful to my guide Mr M.L.Meena, Professor, Dept. of

Electronics and Communication Engineering, UTD. He is being our guide has taken a
keen interest in the progress of the seminar work by providing facilities and guidance. I
am indebted to my guide and coordinator for his inspiration, support and kindness
showered on us throughout the course. I express my profound sense of gratitude to Dr
R.S. MEENA, HOD, Dept. of Electronics and Communication Engineering, UTD for
giving me the opportunity to pursue my interest in this Seminar.

Lastly, heartfelt thanks to my parents, friends and teaching and non-teaching staff of my
college for their encouragement and support.

BHUMIKA RANAWAT

iii
 ABSTRACT
Electronics plays a very important role in developing simple devices used for any
purpose. In every field, electronic equipment is required. The best achievement, as well
as a future example of integrated electronics in the medical field, is Artificial Skin. It is
ultrathin electronics device attaches to the skin like a sick on tattoo which can measure
the electrical activity of the heart, brain waves & other vital signals.

Artificial skin is skin grown in a laboratory. It can be used as skin replacement for people
who have suffered skin trauma, such as severe burns or skin diseases, or robotic
applications.

This paper focuses on the Artificial skin(E-Skin) to build a skin work similar to that of
the human skin and also it is embedded with several sensations or the sense of touch
acting on the skin. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of
embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution
detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electronic holographs. This
device would enhance the new technology which is emerging and would greatly increase
the usefulness of robotic probes in areas where the human cannot venture.

The sensor could pave the way for an overabundance of new applications that can
wirelessly monitor the vitals and body movements of a patient sending information
directly to a computer that can log and store data to better assist in future decisions. This
paper offers an insight view of the internal structure, fabrication process and different
manufacturing processes. [1]

iv
 CONTENTS
Candidate Declaration ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

Chapter 1- Electronic Skin

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Evolution of E-Skin 3

Chapter 2- Architecture of E-Skin

2.1 Architecture 4

2.2 Tactile Sensing Arrays 5

Chapter 3- Stretchable E-Skin

3.1 Choice of Material 10

3.2 Mechanical Properties of E-Skin 10

Chapter 4- Transduction Mechanisms

4.1 Working Principle 12

4.2 Piezoresistivity 12

4.3 Capacitance 13

4.4 Piezoelectricity 14

4.5 Other Transduction Mechanism 14

Chapter 5- Desirable Properties of E-Skin

5.1 Biocompatibility and Biodegradability 15

5.2 Self-healing 15

5.3 Temperature Sensitivity 15

5.4 Self-powering 16

v
Chapter 6- Developing parts of E-Skin

6.1 E-Skin using off-the-shelf electronics 18

6.2 Printing of electronic and sensing components 18

6.3 Ultra-thin Flexible Chips 19

Chapter 7- Innovations in Electronic Skin

7.1 More comfortable and Self-healing Monitoring Systems 20

7.2 Giving prostheses the Human Touch 20

7.3 Healthy Tattoos 21

7.4 Non-invasive wound tracking 21

7.5 Drug Delivery to help Smokers kick the habit 21

7.6 The Road Ahead 22

References 23

vi
 TABLE OF FIGURES

S.no Figure Page no.

1 The architecture of Artificial Skin 1

The e-skin concept with multiple functionalities integrated over ultra-thin

2 2
flexible substrates like polyimide

3 A brief chronology of the evolution of e-skin 3

4 Island carrying electronic surface 4

5 Detailed view of the inner circuit of electronic skin 5

6 From the applied mechanical stimulus to the skin communication interface 6

7 Basic skin prototype based on a single PVDF transducer 6

8 Schematics of charge amplifier 7

Schematic of (a) the flexible tactile sensor using interlocked ZnO nanorods,
9 8
(b) perceive mechanism between interlocked ZnO nanorods.
Optical images of multifunctional epidermal electronic systems on
10 11
unstretched (left) and stretched (right) skin
Schematic illustrations of three common transduction methods and
11 representative devices: a) piezoresistivity, b) capacitance, and c) 12
piezoelectricity

vii
 Chapter 1
Electronic Skin
1.1 Introduction

The skin is one of the main organs of the human body and as such it implements many
different and relevant functions, e.g. protection of the inner body organs, detection of
cutaneous stimuli, etc. Due to its complexity, the development of artificial, or better,
electronic skin (e-skin) is a very challenging goal which involves many different and
complementary research areas. Nonetheless, the possible application areas are many and
very relevant: e.g. humanoids and industrial robotics, artificial prosthetics, biomedical
instrumentation, cyber-physical systems, for naming a few. Many research groups are
addressing the development of e-skin and the research scenario is exciting and
continuously evolving. Due to its very peculiar features, the development of electronic
skin can be effectively tackled using a holistic approach. Starting from the system
specification definition, the mechanical arrangement of the skin itself (i.e. soft or rigid
mechanical support, structural and functional material layers, etc.) needs to be designed
and fabricated together with the electronic embedded system.

Fig.1 The architecture of Artificial Skin

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The development of electronic skin (e-skin in the following) is a hot research topic due to
its relevant countless applications e.g. in robotics and in biomedical systems. The
functions of e-skin are basically:
1) to protect the inner electronic system from damages due to interactions with the
outside (e.g. impacts, humidity);
2) to convey the mechanical stimulus in a convenient way to the beneath distributed
sensor arrays: the geometrical arrangement of e-skin patches, the geometry of the
protective layer on top of the e-skin structure and the composition of the protective layer
contribute to effective implementation of this task;
3) to acquire and to pre-process sensor signals in a convenient way;
4) to extract in an effective and reliable way the meaningful and necessary information
for the task at hand (e.g. automatic reflexes, contact type recognition, surface feature
detection, etc.);
5) to transmit the information to the next higher level of the ICT infrastructure of the
system (e.g. the local communication bus).
Each of such operations can be organized in many other tasks which jointly concur to
implement the extrinsic/cutaneous tactile system. What is more, from the previous
considerations, it seems that the e-skin should be flexible (i.e. conformable to the system
to be applied on) and stretchable e.g. to support joint movements, and processing must be
implemented in real time for using the tactile information in the system control loop. [2]

Fig.2 The e-skin concept with multiple functionalities integrated over ultra-thin flexible
substrates like polyimide [12]

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1.2 Evolution of E-Skin [3]

Fig.3 A brief chronology of the evolution of e-skin

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 Chapter 2
Architecture of E-Skin
2.1 Architecture

Electronic skins for robots and medical prostheses—multifunctional structures, in which

sensors and actuators are closely integrated with microelectronic circuits—bring a new
dimension to electronics flexibility. Shaped electronics and skin-like electronics may
experience large deformation strains. A disk detector array may see its surface area
double to be shaped as a hemispherical detector array. When wrapped over elbow like
joints, the skin may be stretched and relaxed many times by 15%. Semiconductor
integrated circuits and MEMS technology use rigid and stiff substrates that are not
adapted to flexible structures, and thin active device materials that fracture at a critical
strain of 1 %.Free-standing thin metal films also break under the tensile strain of the
order of 1%.

Fig.4 Island carrying electronic surface

To achieve flexible and stretchable skin, subcircuit cells, made of a transducer and an
electronic circuit, will be placed on mechanically separated islands, which are fabricated
on a deformable substrate that takes up most of the total strain. The figure shown above
is a sketch of such an island carrying electronic surface. The islands are made
sufficiently rigid to protect them from breaking when the circuit is deformed one time or
by repeated stretching. The sub-circuits are electrically connected with stretchable metal
conductors.

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We have three options for making deformable interconnects: making thin metal films that
can withstand large plastic deformation, deforming a sacrificial mask which serves in
liftoff metallization and making stretchable metallization. [4]

Fig.5 Detailed view of the inner circuit of electronic skin

2.2 Tactile Sensing Arrays

2.2.1 Sensing material and large area sensor array technology

The first step in e-skin development is to identify adequate functional material to
enable certain sensing capabilities. As the functional skin requirements are
debatable and ‘application dependent’, piezoelectric polymer films of
Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) have been chosen as meeting the target
requirements of mechanical flexibility, high sensitivity, detectability of dynamic
touch (1Hz-1kHz frequency range) and robustness.
Linear constitutive equations are commonly used to describe the material intrinsic
transduction of the mechanical stimulus into a charge signal, but care is required to
account for the way the piezoelectric film is integrated into the skin, which also
includes a substrate and a cover layer.

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 Fig.6 From the applied mechanical stimulus to the skin communication interface

In the e-skin easiest concept, a PVDF circular taxel is provided of electrodes for charge
collection and it is glued to a rigid substrate and covered by a protective layer (see
Figure). This configuration was used to make preliminary choices (e.g. technology for
patterning electrodes on PVDF, material and thickness of the protective layer, assembly
technology) and to design the electronics. A Fujifilm Dimatix 2800 (DMP2800) Drop On
Demand inkjet printer has been used for deposition and patterning of metal electrodes
(Cabot Conductive Ink 300 (CCI-300)) on the PVDF polymer film, enabling scalability
to large area manufacturing through a maskless approach [8]. A PDMS flexible elastomer
has been chosen as cover layer and directly polymerized on top of the polymer film,
starting from two-part silicone Sylgard® 184 (Dow Corning).

Fig.7 Basic skin prototype based on a single PVDF transducer

Charge, generated by the PVDF transducer as a result of the cover layer transmission of
external mechanical stimuli, can be directly converted to voltage by means of charge
amplifier-based electronics [6], whose schematics is reported in Fig. For 2.5-3mm thick
PDMS cover layer and 3- 4mm diameter electrodes, charge typically ranges from
hundreds of fCs to nCs, depending on the tactile gesture [9]. These values become an
important design spec for electronics. The same approach illustrated in Fig. has been
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extended to fabricate larger piezoelectric polymer sensor arrays, from a 16-taxel rigid
version to flexible 12-taxel and 64-taxel solutions, which have been designed with the
requirements in mind of skin compliance to curved surfaces, scalability (to cover the
entire robot surface), low cost and lightweight, robustness and reproducibility. [2]

Fig.8 Schematics of charge amplifier

2.2.2 Tactile Sensor using Interlocked Zinc Oxide Nanorod Arrays

Tactile sensors are widely used in artificial electronic skin (e-skin) to mimic the
sensing capabilities of human skin and have been applied to prostheses and mechanical
arms. In the past, these sensors were fabricated using silicon and glass substrates,
resulting in limitations in the surface. More recently, flexible tactile sensors have
attracted increasing research attention because of their low cost, bendable and stretchable
characteristics. Most tactile sensors have been developed to detect pressure in a single
device through changes in piezoresistivity, piezoelectricity, capacitance, and
triboelectricity. An integral artificial e-skin system should simultaneously possess the
ability to perceive and distinguish mechanical signals, such as static and dynamic
pressure stimuli, temperature, and continuous vibration sources. The traditional approach
involves integrating various required sensors on heterogeneous substrates to mimic the
behaviour of human skin. However, multiple sensors require complex layouts to
interconnect each component, making the volume of the sensing circuitry bulky. Human
skin is actually an accurate sensory system that comprises the dermis, epidermis, and
subcutaneous tissues to detect mechanical stimuli. Between the dermis and epidermis
layers, microstructures are filled with various sensory receptors, and the major types of
tactile mechanoreceptors (e.g., Merkel disk, Meissner corpuscle, Pacinian corpuscle,

Page | 7
Ruffini endings, and free nerve endings) enable the detection of static and dynamic touch,
vibrations, and temperature on the human skin. Within the human skin system, Meissner
and Pacinian corpuscles are rapidly adapting receptors that react to dynamic touch and
vibration, Merkel nerve endings and Ruffini endings are slow-adapting receptors that
react to static touch and skin stretch, and free nerve endings are cold–heat receptors that
react to temperature stimuli. The selected sensing materials play an essential role in the
performance of tactile sensors. Among them, the materials that are currently used for the
design of tactile sensors are metallic (silver, gold, and platinum), semiconductor (silicon,
zinc oxide [ZnO], and aluminum-doped ZnO[AZO]), polymer nanofiber (polyvinylidene
fluoride [PVDF] and poly (urethane acrylate)), nano conductive (carbon nanotube and
graphene), and hybrid composite materials (ZnO/PVDF and reduced graphene
oxide/PVDF). In general, most previous studies using a single material have focused only
on the unitary state of mechanical stimuli or have employed hybrid composite materials
for multifunctional tactile sensors. This approach results in increased manufacturing costs
and a difficult fabrication process. Therefore, a flexible substrate such as
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) can be applied in polymer elastomers because of its low
cost, stretchiness, and high transparency. However, the PDMS substrate is an elastomer
with viscoelastic and elastic properties, resulting in a delay of approximately 10 s in the
response time and a rapid decline in the sensitivity of the tactile sensor. To overcome
these shortcomings, a novel artificial e-skin design with ZnO nanorods was introduced to
obtain high sensitivity and detect external stimuli. [5]

Fig.9 Schematic of (a) the flexible tactile sensor using interlocked ZnO nanorods, (b)
perceive mechanism between interlocked ZnO nanorods.

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2.2.3 Tactile sensor on-chip integration
A novel tactile sensing device that can provide an effective and advantageous solution to
the large sensing area approach discussed above is the Piezoelectric Oxide Field Effect
Transistor. The device is composed by a high trans-conductance MOS device with a large
channel width-to-length ratio, and a thin film of piezoelectric polymer, like P(VDF-
TrFE), deposited by spin coating on the gate contact [10, 11].
The direct interface between the polymer and the terminal contact allows for an efficient
capacitive coupling between the transducer material and the electronic device dedicated
to impedance adaptation and signal amplification. If the piezoelectric material is poled in
the through-thickness direction, when a normal force is applied a voltage arises between
the film surfaces, and a charge accumulation in the transistor channel is induced. In this
way the transistor amplifies the signal generated by the thin film and decouples itself
from the other circuitry with virtually infinite input impedance. The entire device is
extremely compact and suitable to be integrated into an array of sensing elements with
high spatial tactile resolution. The small size of the components allows for an
autonomous transducing system embedding in the sensitive surface also the signal
conditioning circuits and the digital converters. It is possible to maintain the human like
tactile resolution, while also reducing the amount of cables and external circuitry for
signal elaboration. A neuromorphic circuit that executes an Address-Event
Representation (AER) digital coding is being developed to this scope. It is a compact and
robust circuit that can be embedded directly close to the POSFET itself, and its output
signal can be managed by a tree organized arbiter taking advantage of the time
multiplexing of the spike codification. We use a Leak Integrate and Fire (LI&F) neuron
that integrates the POSFET current and generates a pulsing output signal characterized by
a fire rate proportional to the intensity of the applied force. In this way the input envelope
is encoded in the time elapsed between two different spikes, and this allows to time-
multiplex sensor data. At present, the data bus to the central computing unit is only wide
as the number of bits to address the neuromorphic taxel that has fired.

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 Chapter 3
Stretchable E-Skin
3.1 Choice of Material

The authors discuss design considerations covering some of the materials and techniques
frequently used for e-skin: "Human skin can be considered as a performance benchmark
for the development of artificial tactile systems. Important considerations for the
development of e-skin are the choice of materials used in its fabrication and the ability to
confer the mechanical properties of human skin (low modulus, stretchability and
flexibility) into its artificial counterpart."
Relevant materials include carbon nanotubes, graphene, nanowires as well as organic and
polymer-based active materials. An important characteristic of human skin is its ability to
stretch and flex with bodily movements without incurring damage. While arrays of
flexible electronics have been developed by using very thin plastic substrates, stretchable
devices have been more difficult to achieve, and new processes and materials are often
required. In general, stretchable devices can be fabricated by developing devices
comprised of intrinsically stretchable materials or by appropriate geometrical
arrangement of conventional materials.

3.2 Mechanical Properties E- Skin

The mechanical properties of skin have a pronounced effect on its tactile sensing
capabilities. Developing highly sensitive tactile sensors, therefore, is one of the essential
aspects of e-skin designs. To illustrate this point, the authors list some of the essential
aspects of life that are mediated by the multifunctional tactile sensing capabilities of skin:
 Normal force sensing for grasp control, object manipulation, and orientation
determination;
 Tensile strain monitoring for proprioception (essential for simple movements such
as standing or walking);
 Shear force sensing for grasp control and friction determination;
 Vibration detection for slip detection and texture determination.
According to the authors, "the characteristics outlined above should be considered as the
minimum requirements for e-skin that would allow for its interaction with the world in a
human-like way."

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 Fig.10 Optical images of multifunctional epidermal electronic systems on unstretched
(left) and stretched (right) skin

Another set of challenges is posed by the requirements arising from fabricating large-area
flexible arrays needed for the batch production of e-skin. Many groups have turned to
polymer micromachining, which is more cost-effective and provides flexible devices.
Polymer micromachining typically involves using photolithography or moulding to
pattern device structures, such as air gaps for capacitive sensors or resistive strain gauges.
Large-area solution processing and printing technologies have gained popularity as low-
cost, high throughput fabrication techniques. [6]

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 Chapter 4
Transduction Mechanisms
4.1 Working Principle

Recently, electronic skin that can sense pressure, strain, shear forces, and twist
deformation has attracted attentions. Effective signal transduction that converts external
stimuli into an analog electronic signal is an important component of accurate
quantitative monitoring. Traditional transduction methods (e.g.,
piezoresistivity, capacitance and piezoelectricity are widely used in different types of
sensors, and other transduction methods (e.g., optics, wireless antennas, and
triboelectricity) are undergoing rapid development to meet new challenges and
opportunities that will broaden the applications of e‐skin to robotics, prosthesis, and
human–machine interaction. The details of selected methods are presented in this section.

Fig.11 Schematic illustrations of three common transduction methods and representative

devices: a) piezoresistivity, b) capacitance, and c) piezoelectricity

4.2 Piezoresistivity

Piezoresistive sensors enable transduction of force variations into changes in resistance

that can be easily detected by an electrical measuring system; these sensors are widely
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used due to their simple device design and readout mechanism. The most common
approaches to obtaining the resistance dependence of pressure‐sensitive sensors include
changes in the contact resistance between conductive materials and changes in the
conductive path in conductive elastic composites.
The change in the contact resistance caused by the variation of the contact area between
two components is proportional to the square root of the force, which allows the sensors
to detect lower pressures and expands the usable range. A fast‐response and low‐creep
strain sensor based on the structural deformation of gaps, islands, and bundles in aligned
single‐wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) under different strains permitted improvement
of the strain response by up to 280%.
Piezoresistive elastic composites consisting of conductive fillers embedded in soft
polymer matrixes have been widely used because of their ease of preparation and low
cost. Conventional pressure‐sensitive rubber (PSR) sheets with carbon black are always
integrated with transistors to create a pressure‐sensitive active matrix for mapping the
pressure distribution, but these sheets also encounter low sensitivity and large hysteresis.
Currently, many types of filler materials and elastomer matrixes, such as metallic
particles, graphene, and carbon nanotubes have been investigated to improve mechanical
and electrical properties.

4.3 Capacitance

The capacitance (C) of a parallel plate capacitor, the ability to store a charge, is described
by C = εA/d, where ε is the dielectric constant, and A and d are the area and the distance
between the two electrodes, respectively. Traditional capacitive sensors have been
commonly used to measure different forces by monitoring the changes in A and d for
which the applied pressure or shear force can easily result in the variation of the distance
or the area between the two conductive plates. The major advantage of these sensors is
the characteristic of high strain sensitivity for the detection of a static force with low‐
power consumption and the precise modification of the device design by analysis of the
simple governing equation.
Recently, capacitive sensors with variable effective dielectric constants have attracted
significant interest for tactile sensing along with the rapid development of flexible field‐
effect transistors. A typical transistor structure includes a gate electrode, source‐drain
electrodes, a semiconductor, and a gate dielectric. Using the microstructured elastic
dielectric layers in which the capacitance dramatically and rapidly changes after applied
pressure because of the existence of air gaps, many transistors with high‐pressure
sensitivity were demonstrated that also provided an obvious drain current signal output
for the accurate detection of the pressure distribution.
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4.4 Piezoelectricity

Piezoelectricity refers to the production of electrical charges in certain materials under

mechanical force due to the occurrence of electrical dipole moments. Dipole moments
can be derived from the deformation of oriented noncentrosymmetric crystal structures or
porous electrets with long‐lasting charges in the pores. This approach is widely used to
convert mechanical stresses and vibrations into electrical signals via piezoelectric
materials with high sensitivity, rapid response, and a high piezoelectric coefficient (d33).
Piezoelectric inorganics typically exhibit high d 33 values but low flexibility, whereas
piezoelectric polymers display the opposite. To exploit flexible piezoelectric pressure
sensors with high d 33, certain groups have attempted a variety of approaches, including
the construction of thin films of piezoelectric inorganics on flexible substrates, the use of
piezoelectric polymers or inorganics/polymer composites, and the construction of steady
piezoelectrets. Recently, oriented piezoelectric NWs and NBs with intrinsically high
piezoelectricity and good mechanical stability have attracted growing interest for the
development of integrated high‐resolution sensing arrays for e‐skin.

4.5 Other Transduction Mechanism

In addition to the mentioned methods, other novel transduction methods have been
investigated for the expansive application of e‐skin. Optical pressure sensors, which can
cause modification of the light intensity or wavelength between the light source and the
terminal detectors with applied pressure, have attracted attentions for application in touch
screens and visual displays. In wireless transduction devices, the force‐induced resonant
frequency of the resonant circuit is changed due to the variation of the effective coupling
capacitance. These sensors are widely used in human–machine interactions and wireless
health monitoring. Another interesting triboelectric sensor based on electrostatic
induction and contact electrification enables the device to monitor the touch action
without the requirement for an external power supply, which is promising for the creation
of self‐powered sensors. [7]

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 Chapter 5
Desirable Properties for E-Skin
E-skin can mimic the properties of human skin in its ability to sense tactile forces, as well
as augment the capabilities of human skin through incorporation of chemical and
biological sensing functionalities.
5.1 Biocompatibility and Biodegradability

Since e-skin applications require intimate association with biological interfaces,

biocompatibility is an important consideration for such devices. Ideally, e-skin should be
synthesized from highly biocompatible components.

5.2 Self- healing

While naturally occurring human skin has the ability to repair itself after incurring
mechanical damage, this property has yet to be fully realized in e-skin. For artificial skin,
the ability to repair both mechanical and electrical damage would be highly advantageous
for practical applications. There are two predominant strategies used to incorporate self-
healing properties into materials, namely:
1) the use of materials loaded with healing agents and
2) the use of materials containing dynamic reversible bonds. The incorporation of
capsules containing healants was first demonstrated in self-healing, non-conducting
polymers. However, for e-skin applications, it is necessary to use a system that is
electrically active.

5.3 Temperature sensitivity

Sensing temperature is a key functionality of human skin that helps to prevent injury and
provides information about the surrounding environment, most tactile sensors are
inherently temperature sensitive, and their response must therefore be calibrated with a
temperature sensor. Several groups have implemented piezoelectric pyroelectric sensors
that can discriminate between temperature and pressure inputs. Resistive temperature
detectors (RTD) are attractive for e-skin applications owing to their flexibility, simple
device structure, and compatibility with electronic readout methods.
RTDs relate a change in temperature to a corresponding resistance change through a
material commonly composed of metals such as Au and platinum (Pt). To deconvolute
the contribution of tactile stimuli from temperature sensors, meandering sections of Pt as
temperature-sensing devices were implemented. These devices achieved a resolution of
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0.03 °C over a wide range of temperatures. stretchable temperature sensors based on thin,
buckled Au lines are also demonstrated .While the linear behavior of this sensor was
attractive, the change in resistance was relatively small, and would require a sensitive
readout mechanism.

5.4 Self – Powering

Providing a long-lasting supply of power is a persistent challenge for mobile electronics.

As the largest human organ, skin provides a large area for potential energy storage.
Furthermore, as the body’s interface with the outside world, e-skins may provide the
opportunity to scavenge energy from environmental sources such as light and mechanical
forces. A number of promising technologies have recently been demonstrated for power
generation, transmission, and storage in stretchable systems, including solar cells,
mechanical energy harvesters, supercapacitors, batteries, and wireless antennas.
Light is a readily available power source, and is most effectively harvested using devices
with large surface area stretchable solar cells based on rigid GaAs device islands
connected with freestanding metal interconnects are determined. These solar cells
operated with an efficiency of ≈13% with applied strain of up to 20%. Although these
devices provided exceptional performance, the high cost of GaAs may limit its
implementation in large-area e-skins. OPVs on ultrathin substrates using conventional
materials and processes are fabricated. By transferring the devices to a prestretched
substrate, they were able to achieve stretchability up to 400% with an efficiency of 4%.
Technologies for harnessing mechanical energy include both dielectric elastomer
generators and piezoelectric generators. Dielectric elastomer generators consist of an
elastomeric dielectric coated with two highly compliant electrodes, and their
stretchability makes them attractive for use in e-skin. The electrodes are charged by
applying a voltage in the compressed state. Relaxation of the elastomer increases the
voltage, producing higher energy charges that are harvested. Dielectric elastomer
generators can achieve very high efficiencies, but have historically been limited by the
complexity and weight of the associated electronics. Recent reports have demonstrated
that the circuit complexity can be reduced using systems that are self-primed or primed
by electrets. Mechanical energy harvesting devices based on nanostructured piezoelectric
materials have also been developed, and stretchable versions have been fabricated by
buckling the active materials. Fueled by the development of new soft materials, the field
of mechanically compliant energy storage technologies has recently emerged.
Supercapacitors store energy in the form of double layers of charged species residing at
the electrode–electrolyte interface and provide very high power densities. Buckled CNT

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electrodes on prestrained substrates have been used to make supercapacitors that are
stretchable up to 30%. [4]

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 Chapter-6
Developing Parts of E-Skin

6.1 E-skin using Off-the-Shelf components

Early attempts to obtain bendable electronic skin followed the flexible printed circuit
board route. Here, off-the-shelf sensing and electronic components are soldered to
bendable printed circuit boards. These solutions are akin to having mechanically
integrated but otherwise distinct and stiff sub-circuit islands of off-the-shelf electronic
components, connected to one another by metal interconnects. This approach was also
adopted by the European Commission funded project roboskin. The semirigid flexible
PCB based skin patches conform to surfaces with large curvature such as arms of a
humanoid robot ‘iCub’. Further extension of this approach is affected by off-the-shelf
electronics, which are not bendable. Nonetheless, the flexible PCB based tactile skin
served some of the urgent robotic needs. The large area implementation of tactile skin has
opened new research areas in robotics, whereby multiple contact points or areas contact
with the objects is exploited to plan robotic movements.

6.2 Printing of Electronic and Sensing Components

Another approach for obtaining e-skin (and flexible electronics, in general) involves
printing of active/passive sensing and electronics components on the flexible substrates.
There are numerous examples where this type of approach has been used to obtain both
active and passive electronic components. The approaches for obtaining active
electronics and sensing components directly on flexible substrates include printing or
transferring the basic building blocks (e.g. nanowires and ribbons of Silicon, Graphene
etc.) to flexible substrates. The micro-/nanostructures such as wires of single-crystal
silicon are promising building blocks for realizing high performance nano- to macro scale
FETs. The viability of this approach for flexible electronics has been demonstrated with
microwires. The method involves fabricating single-crystal silicon microstructures using
standard photolithography and dry-wet etching, followed by transferring ordered or
oriented arrays of these microstructures to ultra-flexible receiver substrate (polyimide)
using PDMS as carrier. This procedure overcomes the thermal budget challenges.

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6.3 Ultra-thin Flexible Chips

The solid state sensors or electronic chips that are normally realized on planar and brittle
silicon wafers cannot be integrated well on curved surfaces such as body of a humanoid
robot. The lack of bendability leads to underutilization of many novel schemes. This was
the case for POSFET (Piezoelectric Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) tactile
sensing chips, which we developed in past. Lack of conformability had been one
drawback of otherwise sensitive POSFET chips in terms of their effective usage in
applications such as robotic skin. The research on ultra-thin flex-chip is a step towards
obtaining flexible POSFET tactile sensing chips and in general for compact flexible
electronics. In brief, the fabrication involves thinning of wafer by back-side chemical
etching. The flex-chip approach has potential to open up new avenues for heterogeneous
integration of organic and inorganic semiconductor based electronics as flex-chip can the
provide high-performance integrated electronics needed for many solutions such as
organic semiconductors based displays. [13]

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 Chapter-7
Innovations in Electronic Skin

Once the stuff of science fiction, electronic skin has become a platform technology: an
ultra-thin, flexible, wearable device that combines information and communication
technologies with innovative materials, microelectronics and sensors. Health care in
particular is expected to benefit from the development of what is known as e-skin, driven
by a larger aging population and people afflicted by chronic diseases.

7.1 More Comfortable and Self-Healing Monitoring Systems

E-skin’s flexible and stretching characteristics facilitate miniaturized semiconductor

components, including antennas, light-emitting diodes, nano-scale drug delivery systems
and compact power sources. Sensors that measure strain, stress and temperature can be
embedded into the flexible substrate—typically silicone-based materials with cross-
linked polymers—and applied to different points on the patient’s body. Flexible displays
can be printed onto the e-skin to eliminate the discomfort of wearing bulky external
monitoring devices.
E-skin is in a nascent stage, with researchers intending to develop a synthetic skin that
can heal itself as natural skin does. The key to this work is using a substrate made of
elastic polymers, such as polydimethylsiloxane, that contain highly conductive
electrodes, gold nanoparticles and microscopic particles of nickel. When the synthetic
tissue is torn, hydrogen bonds in the polymer and the gold nanoparticles will heal the
damage with the microscopic nickel particles adding strength.
Another trend is to increase the electrical properties of e-skin’s electrodes by using
carbon nanotubes, their planar counterpart graphene, and metallic nanowires to provide
high conductivity.

7.2 Giving Prostheses the Human Touch

There are four potential health care applications for e-skin: prosthetics that can mimic the
sense of touch, monitors for life signs such as respiration rate and temperature, wound
care, and drug delivery. Major academic institutions and technology firms are pursuing
each.
For example, researchers at Stanford University in California have developed a highly
sensitive sensor that can be integrated into an e-skin applied to a prosthetic limb. The

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Stanford team designed the sensor to detect the lightest pressure—as slight as that of a
butterfly alighting on the prosthesis—and quickly transmit it to the limb’s wearer.
Across the Pacific, scientists at the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials in
Daejeon, South Korea, have developed an e-skin for a prosthetic hand. It senses the
intensity of force, pressure or stress—and detects its direction—to help a person
recognize an object’s shape and texture.

7.3 Healthy Tattoos

Private firms developing e-skin technologies include Chaotic Moon, LLC, of Austin,
Texas, whose electronic wearable “tattoos” use heart rate, hydration level and the
composition of sweat to determine body temperature and detect stress in the wearer. The
devices upload health data using Bluetooth Low Energy or low-frequency mesh
networks. The military is interested in the device to monitor soldiers.
With skin cancer the most prevalent form of cancer in the United States, it is a prime
market for the My UV Patch marketed by La Roche-Posay, a subsidiary of French
cosmetics giant L’Oreal. The flexible, transparent e-skin uses light-sensitive dyes that
change color upon exposure to ultraviolet rays. Excessive exposure to UV light
contributes to skin cancer. The My UV Patch user scans the wearable device with a
smartphone or tablet and tracks UV exposure using a mobile app that is compatible with
both Android and iOS operating systems. The My UV Patch app can advise the wearer to
apply sunscreen or move into shade. The device was jointly developed by L’Oreal, which
licensed the stretchable electronics from MC10 of Lexington, Mass., and PCH
International of Cork, Ireland, which produced the UV sensors.

7.4 Non-Invasive Wound Tracking

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is developing an e-skin to replace the

tactile and visual methods of monitoring wounds with a non-invasive method. The e-skin
uses thermal sensors and actuators to precisely map the temperature and thermal
conductivity of the skin near a wound to prevent it from worsening or becoming infected.

7.5 Drug Delivery to Help Smokers Kick the Habit

Phase 2 clinical trials show the promise of an e-skin developed by Chrono Therapeutics
of Hayward, Calif., to detect when smokers have the strongest desire for a cigarette. The
transdermal patch will then deliver nicotine into the wearer’s bloodstream, stopping the
craving. That craving that is particularly intense in the morning. Research shows that
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75% of smokers light up their first cigarette within 30 minutes of awakening. Chrono
differentiates its e-skin patch as being the first nicotine replacement therapy designed to
address morning cigarette craving by providing the patient with support before the
craving begins. The Chrono patch achieves this by being worn overnight and
programmed to the wearer’s wake-up time so it can start delivering nicotine before the
wearer awakens.

7.6 The Road Ahead

The rise of chronic and non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart
disease will drive the need for health monitoring. As the Internet of Things makes home
health care a possibility, e-skin will help remotely located clinicians manage chronic
diseases and give patients more independence to monitor their own health and wellness.
Greater familiarity with technologies used in temporary wearable patches will sharpen
the focus on e-skin technologies. [14]

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 REFERENCES

[1] https://www.seminarsonly.com/electronics/flexible-electronic-skin.php
[2] Lucia Seminara, Luigi Pinna, Alì Ibrahim, Luca Noli, Marco Capurro, Stefano
Caviglia, Paolo Gastaldo, Maurizio Valle, ‘Electronic Skin: achievements, issues
and trends’, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269094901, Article · July
2014
[3] https://www.frogheart.ca/?tag=the-evolution-of-electronic-skin-e-skin-a-brief-
history-design-consideration-and-recent-progress-mallory-l-hammock
[4] M.S. Kaushik, ‘ Electronic Skin A Brief Overview’, International Journal of
Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 5, May-2015
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[9] Seminara L, Pinna L, Capurro M, Valle M. Smart Actuation and Sensing Systems:
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[Eds.]. Rijeka: InTech; 2012, pp. 611-638.
[10] Dahiya RS, Cattin D, Adami A, Collini C, Barboni L, Valle M, Brunetti F.
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[11] Dahiya RS et al. CMOS implementation of POSFET tactile sensing arrays with
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[12] Ravinder Dahiya, Senior Member, IEEE, Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering,
University of Glasgow, G 12 8QQ, UK, ‘Electronic Skin’, 2015 XVIII AISEM
Annual Conference
[13] Ravinder Dahiya, Senior Member, IEEE Bendable Electronics and Sensing
Technologies (BEST) Group, Electronics and Nanoscale Engineering Research
Division, University of Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK, ‘Large Area Electronic Skin’
[14] https://aabme.asme.org/posts/innovations-in-electronic-skin

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