MIT engineers have fabricated an innovative electronic skin capable of communicating wirelessly without requiring onboard chips or batteries. This skin consists of a flexible, semiconducting film that conforms to the skin, with the heart of it being an ultrathin, high-quality film of gallium nitride, a material that is known for its piezoelectric properties.
This film of gallium nitride an both produce an electrical signal in response to mechanical strain and mechanically vibrate in response to an electrical impulse. The team discovered that they were able to utilize the gallium nitride’s two-way piezoelectric properties for both simultaneously sensing and wireless communication. You could place this electronic skin on your body like a bandage, and when paired with a wireless reader on a smartphone, it could wirelessly monitor your body’s vitals. There are also electronic tattoos that can embed smartphone controls directly on your skin.
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Chips require a lot of power, but our device could make a system very light without having any chips that are power-hungry. You could put it on your body like a bandage, and paired with a wireless reader on your cellphone, you could wirelessly monitor your pulse, sweat, and other biological signals,” said Jeehwan Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and of materials science and engineering, and a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics.
