A Soft Approach for Energy Storage and Mobile Healthcare

Wearable devices that match the soft, curvilinear, and time-dynamic nature of human body is an important trend for future technologies, redefining not only the appearance, but also the design and fabrication of microelectronics. In this talk, I will discuss the strategy to transform materials and devices that are conventionally rigid and brittle into a soft format. Specifically, the mechanical properties of rigid systems can be engineered by breaking down their geometry into small islands and subsequently rebuilding the interconnections with flexible/stretchable conducting filaments. This principle can be illustrated by two examples, which represent the latest progress in stretchable energy storage and mobile healthcare: a wirelessly rechargeable lithium ion battery with a record reversible biaxial stretchability up to 300%, and a soft wearable system capable of multifunctional physiological sensing on skin for health monitoring.