Smart Assembly for Soft Bioelectronics

Biology is soft and curvilinear, whereas wafer-based electronics are rigid and planar. The mechanical mismatch impedes the effective integration of electronic systems with biological tissues or skins, paving the way for the construction of device materials (i.e., semiconducting composites) onto soft, biocompatible elastomers with the ability to be stretched, bent, and twisted. Advances in mechanics allow the rather brittle device materials to accommodate large levels of strain (≫1%) and therefore retain their functionality under repeated mechanical deformations in use. A large array of emerging products ranging from skin-like wearable health-monitoring systems to stretchable, bioresorbable electronic implants exist at a prototyping or commercializing phase. This article reviews recent developments in advanced assembly techniques to integrate various device materials with bio-related soft substrates and their applications in emerging biomedical devices.