An international team lead by academics from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) has devised a universal connection for swiftly and easily assembling stretchy electronics in a “Lego-like” fashion. Stretchable devices, such as soft robots and wearable health care equipment, are constructed from a variety of modules with varying material properties—some soft, some stiff, and some enclosed.
Commercial pastes (glue) now utilised to join the modules, on the other hand, often fail to transfer mechanical and electrical signals correctly when distorted or break quickly. Module connections (interfaces) must be custom-built with adequate strength to accomplish their intended jobs in order to construct a device that works dependably.
Developing stretchable devices that are readily built without sacrificing their strength and dependability under stress has long been a difficulty that has hampered their advancement. The NTU-led team published its solution to this difficulty today in the journal Nature: the BIND interface (biphasic, nano-dispersed interface), which simplifies the construction of stretchy devices while providing good mechanical and electrical performance.
High-performance stretchable devices may be constructed similarly to Lego buildings by simply pushing any module with the BIND interface together. This simple method of connecting electrical modules might serve as the foundation for future stretchable device assembly, in which manufacturers “plug-and-play” the components based on their designs.
Chen Xiaodong, President’s Chair Professor in Materials Science and Engineering at NTU Singapore and Scientific Director of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, said, “Because it functions like a ‘universal connector,’ our breakthrough innovation makes it very simple to form and use a stretchable device. Any electrical module with a BIND interface may be linked in less than 10 seconds by pushing them together. Moreover, we eliminate the time-consuming process of developing specialised interfaces for individual systems, which we feel will aid in the development of stretchy devices.”
This research is in line with the University’s NTU2025 five-year strategy plan, which focuses on health and society as one area with substantial intellectual and social influence.
Mechanical and electrical stretchability is superior.
In tests, modules connected through the interface performed well. Stretching testing revealed the modules could endure extending up to seven times their original length before breaking. Moreover, when stretched, the electrical transmission of modules remained strong up to 2.8 times its original length.
The BIND interface’s interfacial toughness was also examined using a conventional Peel Adhesion Test, which measures the adhesive strength between two modules by peeling them apart at a constant speed at 180°. Researchers discovered that the invention is 60 times stronger than standard connections for encapsulation modules.
According to Dr. Jiang Ying, a research fellow at NTU’s School of Materials Science and Engineering, “These outstanding findings demonstrate that our interface may be utilised to create highly functional and dependable wearable gadgets or soft robotics. For example, it may be utilised in high-quality wearable fitness trackers where users can stretch, gesture, and move in any manner they are most comfortable with, without hurting the device’s capacity to record and analyse their physiological data.”
The researchers created stretchable devices utilising the BIND interface and tested them on rat models and human skin to establish their viability for usage in real-world applications.
When connected to rat models, recordings from the stretchable monitoring device demonstrated consistent signal quality despite wire interferences such as touching and pulling. When the gadget was adhered to human skin, it acquired high-quality electromyography (EMG) data, which measure electrical activity produced in muscles during muscular contraction and relaxation, even underwater.
How does the interface work?
To construct the BIND interface, researchers thermally evaporated metal (gold or silver) nanoparticles to produce a durable interpenetrating nanostructure within a soft thermoplastic widely used in stretchy electronics (styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene).
The resultant nanostructure offers both continuous mechanical and electrical channels, enabling modules with BIND connections to be bent while remaining resilient.
Professor Takao Someya of the University of Tokyo’s Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, speaking as an expert who was not involved in the study, stated, “This study represents a significant accomplishment in developing an electrical bonding technique with excellent elasticity, avoiding stress concentration at the interconnection between modules of varying rigidity and thus reducing noise generation. The development of an industrially scalable high-throughput production technology is expected to accelerate the industrial deployment of stretchy electronics.”
Professor Shlomo Magdassi of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Chemistry commented as an independent expert, “This new universal and simple plug-and-play approach developed by Prof. Chen Xiaodong and his team is significant because it will enable the rapid combining of different components by simple pressing to form devices with various functionalities and complexities, accelerating the development of the field of stretchable electronics.”
The invention has been granted an international patent. The research team’s next steps include developing a more efficient printing technology to broaden the material selection and final application of this innovation, thereby accelerating its translation from the lab to product design and manufacturing.
You might also be interested in reading, A fresh method for encoding and creating Super Mario Bros. levels
