Appendage mountable electronic devices conformable to surfaces

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9554484-B2
Application number	US-201313853770-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 29, 2013
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	Jan 24, 2017
Grant date	Jan 24, 2017

Abstract

Disclosed are appendage mountable electronic systems and related methods for covering and conforming to an appendage surface. A flexible or stretchable substrate has an inner surface for receiving an appendage, including an appendage having a curved surface, and an opposed outer surface that is accessible to external surfaces. A stretchable or flexible electronic device is supported by the substrate inner and/or outer surface, depending on the application of interest. The electronic device in combination with the substrate provides a net bending stiffness to facilitate conformal contact between the inner surface and a surface of the appendage provided within the enclosure. In an aspect, the system is capable of surface flipping without adversely impacting electronic device functionality, such as electronic devices comprising arrays of sensors, actuators, or both sensors and actuators.

First claim

We claim:

1. An appendage mountable electronic system, said system comprising:
a flexible or stretchable substrate having an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the inner surface defines an enclosure capable of receiving an appendage having a curved surface; and
a flexible or stretchable electronic device comprising one or more sensors, actuators or both supported by the inner surface or the outer surface of said flexible or stretchable substrate; said sensors, actuators or both comprising one or more inorganic semiconductor components, one or more metallic components, or one or more inorganic semiconductor components and one or more metallic components; wherein at least a portion of said inorganic semiconductor components, metallic components or both has a thickness less than or equal to 500 microns;
wherein said flexible or stretchable substrate and said electronic device provide a net bending stiffness of the system low enough such that the inner surface of the substrate is capable of establishing conformal contact with a surface of said appendage provided within said enclosure.

2. an appendage mountable electronic system, said system comprising:
a flexible or stretchable substrate having an inner surface and an outer surface, wherein the inner surface defines an enclosure capable of receiving an appendage having a curved surface; and a flexible or stretchable electronic device comprising one or more sensors, actuators or both supported by the inner surface or the outer surface of said flexible or stretchable substrate; said sensors, actuators or both comprising one or more inorganic semiconductor components, one or more metallic components, or one or more inorganic semiconductor components and one or more metallic components;
wherein at least a portion of said inorganic semiconductor components, metallic components or both has a thickness less than or equal to 500 microns;
wherein said flexible or stretchable substrate and said electronic device provide a net bending stiffness of the system low enough such that the inner surface of the substrate is capable of establishing conformal contact with a surface of said appendage provided within said enclosure; wherein said flexible or stretchable substrate and said electronic device provide said net bending stiffness of the system less than or equal to 1×10 8 GPa μm 4 , a net flexural rigidity of the system less than or equal to 1×10 −4 Nm, or a net bending stiffness of the system low enough such that said one or more sensors, actuators or both supported by the inner surface of the substrate are capable of establishing conformal contact with said surface of said appendage provided within said enclosure.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the instrumented glove is a medical glove for surgery.

4. The system of claim 1 comprising a human-machine interface system, a device for robotic manipulation, or an instrumented glove that is a medical glove for surgery.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a flexible substrate and the electronic device is a flexible electronic device or the substrate is a stretchable substrate and the electronic device is a stretchable electronic device.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein said electronic device comprises 2 to 1000 of said one or more sensors, actuators or both, or at least 3 different types of said one or more sensors, actuators or both.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said one or more sensors, actuators or both are provided in an open mesh geometry.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein said one or more sensors, actuators or both have a footprint surface area selected from the range of 0.5 cm 2 to 100 cm 2 .

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein said electronic device comprises one or more sensors selected from the group consisting of an electrode, a tactile sensor, a strain gauge, a capacitance sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a motion sensor, a position sensor, a displacement sensor, an acceleration sensor, a force sensor, a chemical sensor, a pH sensor, a capacitive sensor, an optical sensor, a photodetector, an imaging system and any arrays and combinations thereof; or one or more actuators selected from the group consisting of an electrotactile stimulator, an electrode, a heat source, a piezoelectric element, an acoustic element, a source of RF energy, a magnetic actuator, a source of electromagnetic radiation, a laser, a light emitting diode and arrays and any arrays and combinations thereof.

10. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of said sensors, actuators or both are supported by said inner surface of said flexible or stretchable substrate and at least a portion of said sensors, actuators or both are supported by said outer surface of said flexible or stretchable substrate.

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein said flexible or stretchable electronic device comprises a plurality of said electro-tactile stimulators provided in an array and supported by said inner surface, outer surface, or both inner and outer surfaces of said substrate for electrically stimulating said appendage in the enclosure.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein said flexible or stretchable electronic device comprises a multiplexed array of said electro-tactile stimulators, wherein said electro-tactile stimulators of said array are electrically interconnected via a network of serpentine electrical interconnects.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein each of said electro-tactile stimulators comprise a thin film metal structure having an inner region surrounded by an outer region, wherein a gap is provided between said inner region and said outer region, wherein said inner region has lateral dimensions selected from the range of 10 μm to 1000 μm, said outer ring has lateral dimensions selected from the range of 10 μm to 5000 μm, and said gap has lateral dimensions selected from the range of 10 μm to 1000 μm.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein each of said inner region is a conductive disk-shaped electrode and said outer region is a conductive ring-shaped electrode positioned concentric with said disk-shaped electrode.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein each of said electro-tactile sensors comprise a thin film metal structure having lateral dimensions selected from the range of 100 μm to 5000 μm.

16. The system of claim 1 , wherein said electronic device comprises one or more tactile sensors supported by the outer surface and one or more electro-tactile stimulators supported by said inner surface, wherein said one or more tactile sensors are in electrical communication with said one or more electrotactile stimulators such that an output from the one or more tactile sensors is provided to the one or more electrotactile stimulators to electrically stimulate said appendage in proportion to the tactile sensor output.

17. The system of claim 1 , wherein said electronic device comprises a plurality of electrodes, each electrode comprising:
an inner disk having a diameter that is less than 1 mm; and
an outer ring that surround the inner disk, wherein the inner disk and outer ring are concentrically positioned relative to each other, with a separation distance between the inner disk and outer ring selected from a range that is greater than or equal to 100 μm and less than or equal to 500 μm.

18. The system of claim 1 , comprising said one or more inorganic semiconductor components, wherein each of said one or more inorganic semiconductor components independently comprises a polycrystalline semiconductor material, a single crystalline semiconductor material or

Assignees

• Univ Illinois

Inventors

• Rogers John A
• Ying Ming
• Bonifas Andrew
• Lu Nanshu

Classifications

• A61B2562/029

  Humidity sensors · CPC title

• A41D19/015

  Protective gloves {(A41D19/0055 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H05K7/02 Primary

  Arrangements of circuit components or wiring on supporting structure · CPC title

• A61B2562/028

  Microscale sensors, e.g. electromechanical sensors [MEMS] · CPC title

• H05K3/303

  with surface mounted components (H05K3/32 takes precedence) · CPC title