Stretchability is a prerequisite for electronic skin devices. However, state-of-the-art stretchable thin-film transistors do not possess sufficiently low operating voltages and good stability, significantly limiting their use in real-world biomedical applications. Herein, a van der Waals-controlling elastomer/carbon quantum dot interfacial polarization methodology is proposed to form a hybrid polymer dielectric with 620% tensile strain and large-area film uniformity (>A4 paper size). Using the hybrid polymer dielectrics, the prepared intrinsically stretchable organic thin-film transistors demonstrate a low operating voltage below 5 V, 100% strain tolerance, and excellent operational stability, as well as a high on-current/off-current ratio of 105 and a steep subthreshold slope of 500 mV dec-1 . Based on this device technology, an amplifier with a high gain of 90 V V-1 among the highest values of reported stretchable transistors is realized. This amplifier is at the first time applied to detect human electrophysical signals with an output signal amplitude of over 0.2 V, which even outperforms other types of the state-of-the-art organic amplifiers for human electrophysiology monitoring. This stretchable device technology sufficiently meets the safety and portability requirements of wearable biomedical applications, opening a new opportunity to e-skin with signal control and amplification capabilities.
Keywords: carbon quantum dots; electrophysiological signal detection; hybrid dielectric polymers; intrinsically stretchable organic transistor amplifiers; low operating voltage.
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