Electronic exoneuron based on liquid metal for the quantitative sensing of the augmented somatosensory system

Jin Shang; Lixue Tang; Kaiqi Guo; Shuaijian Yang; Jinhao Cheng; Jiabin Dou; Rong Yang; Mingming Zhang; Xingyu Jiang

doi:10.1038/s41378-023-00535-x

Electronic exoneuron based on liquid metal for the quantitative sensing of the augmented somatosensory system

Microsyst Nanoeng. 2023 Sep 15:9:112. doi: 10.1038/s41378-023-00535-x. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jin Shang^{1

2

3}, Lixue Tang^{1

4}, Kaiqi Guo¹, Shuaijian Yang^{1

5}, Jinhao Cheng¹, Jiabin Dou¹, Rong Yang^{2

3}, Mingming Zhang¹, Xingyu Jiang¹

Affiliations

¹ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Smart Healthcare Engineering, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, No. 1088, Xueyuan Rd., Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055 P. R. China.
² CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China.
³ Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190 P. R. China.
⁴ School of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, No.10 Xitoutiao, You An Men Wai, Beijing, 100069 China.
⁵ School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT UK.

Abstract

The increasing demands in augmented somatosensory have promoted quantitative sensing to be an emerging need for athletic training/performance evaluation and physical rehabilitation. Neurons for the somatosensory system in the human body can capture the information of movements in time but only qualitatively. This work presents an electronic Exo-neuron (EEN) that can spread throughout the limbs for realizing augmented somatosensory by recording both muscular activity and joint motion quantitatively without site constraints or drift instability, even in strenuous activities. Simply based on low-cost liquid metal and clinically used adhesive elastomer, the EEN could be easily fabricated in large areas for limbs. It is thin (~120 μm), soft, stretchable (>500%), and conformal and further shows wide applications in sports, rehabilitation, health care, and entertainment.

Keywords: Electrical and electronic engineering; Electronic properties and materials.