GPS-Inspired Stretchable Self-Powered Electronic Skin

Electronic skin has attracted much attention for their profound implications for human/machine interaction and medicine recently. To imitate the unique characteristics of skin, the electronic skin is moving towards stretchable, multifunctional, biodegradable, more sensitive and accurate. Here, we present a novel stretchable self-powered electronic skin, to detect the touch location in an analog method. Thanks to triboelectrification and planar electrostatic induction, the generation of location signals does not need an extra power supply. Inspired by Global Positioning System, the electronic skin has simple structure of a single layer poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrate and three carbon nanotube-PDMS (CNT-PDMS) composite electrodes, which not only reduce the electrode amount but also make the device stretchable. The less electrode number means the less fabrication cost, extra difficulties on electrode extraction, and in particular, less signal interference and data processing. Stretchability extends the application scenarios of the electronic skin to the curvilinear surfaces, such as cylindrical surfaces and spherical surfaces. Through special location method, the touch position can be read out easily and directly with averaged error sums of ∼1 mm. This new electronic skin takes a significant step forward in practical application. © 2002-2012 IEEE.