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Waterproof AlInGaP optoelectronics on stretchable substrates with applications in biomedicine and robotics

Nature Materials volume 9, pages 929–937 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Inorganic light-emitting diodes and photodetectors represent important, established technologies for solid-state lighting, digital imaging and many other applications. Eliminating mechanical and geometrical design constraints imposed by the supporting semiconductor wafers can enable alternative uses in areas such as biomedicine and robotics. Here we describe systems that consist of arrays of interconnected, ultrathin inorganic light-emitting diodes and photodetectors configured in mechanically optimized layouts on unusual substrates. Light-emitting sutures, implantable sheets and illuminated plasmonic crystals that are compatible with complete immersion in biofluids illustrate the suitability of these technologies for use in biomedicine. Waterproof optical-proximity-sensor tapes capable of conformal integration on curved surfaces of gloves and thin, refractive-index monitors wrapped on tubing for intravenous delivery systems demonstrate possibilities in robotics and clinical medicine. These and related systems may create important, unconventional opportunities for optoelectronic devices.

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Figure 1: Device layouts of μ-ILED arrays and their responses to uniaxial and balloon-shape biaxial stretching.
Figure 2: Responses of μ-ILED arrays to twisting and to stretching on sharp tips.
Figure 3: Multilayer laminated configurations of arrays of μ-ILEDs for high effective area coverage and integration on various unusual substrates.
Figure 4: Demonstrations of application possibilities for systems of μ-ILEDs in biomedicine.
Figure 5: Refractive-index microsensors based on thin, moulded plasmonic crystals integrated with arrays of μ-LEDs, in tape-like formats integrated directly on flexible tubing suitable for use in intravenous delivery systems.
Figure 6: Stretchable optical proximity sensor consisting of an array of μ-ILEDs and μ-IPDs mounted on the fingertip of a vinyl glove.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Banks for help with processing using facilities at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, J. D. Sulkin for help with luminance–current–voltage measurement, H-S. Kim for discussions and C. Conway and D. Stevenson for help with photography. We also thank Georgios A. Bertos, Ph.D., Sr R&D Principal Engineer Technology Resources Engineering, Baxter Healthcare Corporation, for discussions. This material is based on work supported by Ford Motor Company, the National Science Foundation under grant DMI-0328162 and the US Department of Energy, Division of Materials Sciences, under Award No. DE-FG02-07ER46471, through the Materials Research Laboratory and Center for Microanalysis of Materials (DE-FG02-07ER46453) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. R-H.K. would like to thank Samsung Electronics for doctoral fellowships. J.A.R. acknowledges support from a National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship from the Department of Defense. Y.H. acknowledges support from NSF (OISE-1043143 and ECCS-0824129). F.G.O. and D.L.K. acknowledge support from the US Army Research Laboratory and the US Army Research Office under contract number W911 NF-07-1-0618 and by the DARPA-DSO and the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (P41 EB002520). We also thank the NIH P41 Tissue Engineering Resource Center (P41 EB002520) for support of the studies, all of which were conducted under approved animal protocols at Tufts University.

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  1. Rak-Hwan Kim and Dae-Hyeong Kim: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

    Rak-Hwan Kim, Dae-Hyeong Kim, Jianliang Xiao, Bong Hoon Kim, Sang-Il Park, Viktor Malyarchuk, Dae Gon Kim & John A. Rogers

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA

    Jianliang Xiao, Ming Li & Yonggang Huang

  3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 373-1 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, Republic of Korea

    Bong Hoon Kim

  4. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155, USA

    Bruce Panilaitis, David L. Kaplan & Fiorenzo G. Omenetto

  5. MC10 Inc., 36 Cameron Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02140, USA

    Roozbeh Ghaffari

  6. Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA

    Jimin Yao, An-Phong Le & Ralph G. Nuzzo

  7. State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

    Ming Li & Zhan Kang

  8. Institute of High Performance Computing, 1 Fusionopolis Way, #16-16 Connexis, 138632, Singapore

    Zhuangjian Liu

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Contributions

R-H.K., D-H.K., B.H.K., S-I.P. and J.A.R. designed the experiments. R-H.K., D-H.K., B.H.K., J.X., B.P., J.Y., M.L., Z.J.L., A-P.L., D.G.K., F.G.O., Y.H., Z.K. and J.A.R. carried out experiments and analysis. R-H.K., D-H.K., J.X., R.G., J.Y., Y.H., F.G.O., D.L.K. and J.A.R. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to John A. Rogers.

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Kim, RH., Kim, DH., Xiao, J. et al. Waterproof AlInGaP optoelectronics on stretchable substrates with applications in biomedicine and robotics. Nature Mater 9, 929–937 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2879

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