Professor Seung Hwan Ko of SNU Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Develops Transparent Electronic Skin Sensor Using Kirigami Approach

-Published in Nano Letters, Selected as Outstanding Research Paper by American Chemical Society



<SNU Professor Seung Hwan Ko of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering>

 
 
SNU College of Engineering (Dean Kookheon Char) announced on the 17th of Septemver that a team led by Professor Seung Hwan Ko of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering has developed transparent electronic skin using the paper-cutting method called Kirigami that recognizes biometric information when attached to human skin. This study made the customization of electronic skin to various layers of skin a easily attainable task.
 
Electronic skin, which operates by being attached to an individual's skin, should be transparent enough to be invisible to the eye and should be stretchable like the skin to prevent any discomfort. However, transparent electrodes for electronic skin that had been developed so far failed to be transparent due to physical restrictions, had difficulties with elasticity and also showed the limitations of significantly changing in electrical performance in relation to mechanical deformation.
 
In response, the research team had come up with an innovative method of cutting transparent electrodes into various patterns. When the Kirigami structure is inserted into the transparent electrode according to the patterning process engineered by the research team, it can protrude out into diverse shapes and be stretched to perfectly suit the desired skin area.
 
Using this Kirigami transparent electrode mechanism, the research team has implemented transparent electronic skin in the form of a heater and a biometric signal sensor that can be attached to diversely contoured skin areas. This transparent e-skin is not visible to the human eye and can be utilized as a wound treatment/health care device that can be worn without any burden.
 
Furthermore, transparent electronic skin can also be used in the IoT/ICT field that uses biometric signals. The research team successfully demonstrated an experiment in which a quadrotor drone could control a person's arm by converting the EMG signal, measured from the arm using transparent electronic skin, into a working signal.
 
"This research is meaningful in that it has easily devised the process of producing transparent electronic skin through the application of paper-cutting techniques," said SNU Professor Seung Hwan Ko. "It has demonstrated its possible applicability in not just the medical field but also in the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) field that connects people and machines together," he added.
 
The results of the study were also recognized on a worldwide scale and was selected as "ACS Editor's Choice" amongst all other academic journal papers published by the American Chemical Society for its excellence. In addition, the research journal was published on the 14th of August in "Nano Letters", an international scientific journal of the Nano sector.
 
Title of Research Paper: Stretchable and Transparent Kirigami Conductor of Nanowire Percolation Network for Electronic Skin Applications (First Author Phillip Won, Jung Jae Park, Corresponding Author Seung Hwan Ko)