Nanofabrication for all-soft and high-density electronic devices based on liquid metal
Open Access
- 21 February 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 11 (1), 1-11
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14814-y
Abstract
Innovations in soft material synthesis and fabrication technologies have led to the development of integrated soft electronic devices. Such soft devices offer opportunities to interact with biological cells, mimicking their soft environment. However, existing fabrication technologies cannot create the submicron-scale, soft transducers needed for healthcare and medical applications involving single cells. This work presents a nanofabrication strategy to create submicron-scale, all-soft electronic devices based on eutectic gallium-indium alloy (EGaIn) using a hybrid method utilizing electron-beam lithography and soft lithography. The hybrid lithography process is applied to a biphasic structure, comprising a metallic adhesion layer coated with EGaIn, to create soft nano/microstructures embedded in elastomeric materials. Submicron-scale EGaIn thin-film patterning with feature sizes as small as 180 nm and 1 μm line spacing was achieved, resulting in the highest resolution EGaIn patterning technique to date. The resulting soft and stretchable EGaIn patterns offer a currently unrivaled combination of resolution, electrical conductivity, and electronic/wiring density.Keywords
This publication has 56 references indexed in Scilit:
- Battery-free, skin-interfaced microfluidic/electronic systems for simultaneous electrochemical, colorimetric, and volumetric analysis of sweatScience Advances, 2019
- Material approaches to active tissue mechanicsNature Reviews Materials, 2018
- Soft conductive micropillar electrode arrays for biologically relevant electrophysiological recordingProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2018
- Tissue–electronics interfaces: from implantable devices to engineered tissuesNature Reviews Materials, 2017
- Mechanobiology of collective cell behavioursNature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 2017
- Printing soft matter in three dimensionsNature, 2016
- Bioresorbable silicon electronic sensors for the brainNature, 2016
- Skin-inspired electronic devicesMaterials Today, 2014
- YAP/TAZ as mechanosensors and mechanotransducers in regulating organ size and tumor growthFEBS Letters, 2014
- Mechanics Meets MedicineScience Translational Medicine, 2013