Joanna M. Nassar

Ultrastretchable and Flexible Copper Interconnect‐Based Smart Patch for Adaptive Thermotherapy

Unprecedented 800% stretchable, non-polymeric, widely used, low-cost, naturally rigid, metallic thin-film copper (Cu)-based flexible and non-invasive, spatially tunable, mobile thermal patch with wireless controllability, adaptability (tunes the amount of heat based on the temperature of the swollen portion), reusability, and affordability due to low-cost complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible integration.

Stretchable and foldable silicon-based electronics

Flexible and stretchable semiconducting substrates provide the foundation for novel electronic applications. Usually, ultra-thin, flexible but often fragile substrates are used in such applications. Here, we describe flexible, stretchable, and foldable 500-μm-thick bulk mono-crystalline silicon (100) “islands” that are interconnected via extremely compliant 30-μm-thick connectors made of silicon. The thick mono-crystalline segments create a stand-alone silicon array that is capable of bending to a radius of 130 μm. The bending radius of the array does not depend on the overall substrate thickness because the ultra-flexible silicon connectors are patterned. We use fracture propagation to release the islands. Because they allow for three-dimensional monolithic stacking of integrated circuits or other electronics without any through-silicon vias, our mono-crystalline islands can be used as a “more-than-Moore” strategy and to develop wearable electronics that are sufficiently robust to be compatible with flip...

Flexible and biocompatible high-performance solid-state micro-battery for implantable orthodontic system

To augment the quality of our life, fully compliant personalized advanced health-care electronic system is pivotal. One of the major requirements to implement such systems is a physically flexible high-performance biocompatible energy storage (battery). However, the status-quo options do not match all of these attributes simultaneously and we also lack in an effective integration strategy to integrate them in complex architecture such as orthodontic domain in human body. Here we show, a physically complaint lithium-ion micro-battery (236 μg) with an unprecedented volumetric energy (the ratio of energy to device geometrical size) of 200 mWh/cm3 after 120 cycles of continuous operation. Our results of 90% viability test confirmed the battery’s biocompatibility. We also show seamless integration of the developed battery in an optoelectronic system embedded in a three-dimensional printed smart dental brace. We foresee the resultant orthodontic system as a personalized advanced health-care application, which could serve in faster bone regeneration and enhanced enamel health-care protection and subsequently reducing the overall health-care cost.Bioelectronics: A flexible micro-battery for healthcareThere is an increasing demand for advanced healthcare electronics. That can be powered by physically flexible, biocompatible and high performance energy storage devices. However, existing technologies do not allow a combination of all favorable attributes in a single system. Now Muhammad Hussain and co-workers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia show a physically compliant lithium ion micro-battery with an unprecedented high volumetric energy after cycling 120 times. They further integrate the battery module in a 3D printed encapsulation with near-infrared LEDs to demonstrate a smart dental brace. The present orthodontic system may be used as a personalized healthcare device that serves in faster bone regeneration and enhanced enamel healthcare protection with cost benefits.

Transformational electronics are now reconfiguring

Current developments on enhancing our smart living experience are leveraging the increased interest for novel systems that can be compatible with foldable, wrinkled, wavy and complex geometries and surfaces, and thus become truly ubiquitous and easy to deploy. Therefore, relying on innovative structural designs we have been able to reconfigure the physical form of various materials, to achieve remarkable mechanical flexibility and stretchability, which provides us with the perfect platform to develop enhanced electronic systems for application in entertainment, healthcare, fitness and wellness, military and manufacturing industry. Based on these novel structural designs we have developed a siliconbased network of hexagonal islands connected through double-spiral springs, forming an ultra-stretchable (~1000%) array for full compliance to highly asymmetric shapes and surfaces, as well as a serpentine design used to show an ultrastretchable (~800%) and flexible, spatially reconfigurable, mobile, metallic thin film copper (Cu)-based, body-integrated and non-invasive thermal heater with wireless controlling capability, reusability, heating-adaptability and affordability due to low-cost complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible integration.

Impact of Physical Deformation on Electrical Performance of Paper-Based Sensors

We report on investigation of the mechanical properties of paper electronics (printed and made out of paper). One key objective of such paper electronics is to achieve ultraflexibility. Therefore, it is important to understand electrical functionality and reliability of paper electronics under various physical (mechanical) deformations. Here, we show the general mechanical properties of the cellulose paper used and its electrical behavior under applied strain, tackling the main effects that need to be identified when building paper-based systems, from product performance and stability perspective. An overview of the stress–strain behavior of silver ink on paper is discussed, and then, we tackle a more specific analysis of the performance variations of paper sensors made with recyclable household materials when exposed to various mechanical conditions of tensile and compressive bending. This paper is important for developing stable wearable sensors for incorporation into Internet of Everything applications.

Freeform Compliant CMOS Electronic Systems for Internet of Everything Applications

The state-of-the-art electronics technology has been an integral part of modern advances. The prevalent rise of the mobile device and computational technology in the age of information technology offers exciting applications that are attributed to sophisticated, enormously reliable, and most mature CMOS-based electronics. We are accustomed to high performance, cost-effective, multifunctional, and energy-efficient scaled electronics. However, they are rigid, bulky, and brittle. The convolution of flexibility and stretchability in electronics for emerging Internet of Everything application can unleash smart application horizon in unexplored areas, such as robotics, healthcare, smart cities, transport, and entertainment systems. While flexible and stretchable device themes are being remarkably chased, the realization of the fully compliant electronic system is unaddressed. Integration of data processing, storage, communication, and energy management devices complements a compliant system. Here, a comprehensive review is presented on necessity and design criteria for freeform (physically flexible and stretchable) compliant high-performance CMOS electronic systems.

CMOS Enabled Microfluidic Systems for Healthcare Based Applications

With the increased global population, it is more important than ever to expand accessibility to affordable personalized healthcare. In this context, a seamless integration of microfluidic technology for bioanalysis and drug delivery and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology enabled data-management circuitry is critical. Therefore, here, the fundamentals, integration aspects, and applications of CMOS-enabled microfluidic systems for affordable personalized healthcare systems are presented. Critical components, like sensors, actuators, and their fabrication and packaging, are discussed and reviewed in detail. With the emergence of the Internet-of-Things and the upcoming Internet-of-Everything for a people-process-data-device connected world, now is the time to take CMOS-enabled microfluidics technology to as many people as possible. There is enormous potential for microfluidic technologies in affordable healthcare for everyone, and CMOS technology will play a major role in making that happen.

A CMOS-compatible large-scale monolithic integration of heterogeneous multi-sensors on flexible silicon for IoT applications

We report CMOS technology enabled fabrication and system level integration of flexible bulk silicon (100) based multi-sensors platform which can simultaneously sense pressure, temperature, strain and humidity under various physical deformations. We also show an advanced wearable version for body vital monitoring which can enable advanced healthcare for IoT applications.

Transformational electronics: a powerful way to revolutionize our information world

With the emergence of cloud computation, we are facing the rising waves of big data. It is our time to leverage such opportunity by increasing data usage both by man and machine. We need ultra-mobile computation with high data processing speed, ultra-large memory, energy efficiency and multi-functionality. Additionally, we have to deploy energy-efficient multi-functional 3D ICs for robust cyber-physical system establishment. To achieve such lofty goals we have to mimic human brain, which is inarguably the world’s most powerful and energy efficient computer. Brain’s cortex has folded architecture to increase surface area in an ultra-compact space to contain its neuron and synapses. Therefore, it is imperative to overcome two integration challenges: (i) finding out a low-cost 3D IC fabrication process and (ii) foldable substrates creation with ultra-large-scale-integration of high performance energy efficient electronics. Hence, we show a low-cost generic batch process based on trench-protect-peel-recycle to fabricate rigid and flexible 3D ICs as well as high performance flexible electronics. As of today we have made every single component to make a fully flexible computer including non-planar state-of-the-art FinFETs. Additionally we have demonstrated various solid-state memory, movable MEMS devices, energy harvesting and storage components. To show the versatility of our process, we have extended our process towards other inorganic semiconductor substrates such as silicon germanium and III-V materials. Finally, we report first ever fully flexible programmable silicon based microprocessor towards foldable brain computation and wirelessly programmable stretchable and flexible thermal patch for pain management for smart bionics.

Compliant plant wearables for localized microclimate and plant growth monitoring

The microclimate surrounding a plant has major effect on its health and photosynthesis process, where certain plants struggle in suboptimal environmental conditions and unbalanced levels of humidity and temperature. The ability to remotely track and correlate the effect of local environmental conditions on the healthy growth of plants can have great impact for increasing survival rate of plants and augmenting agriculture output. This necessitates the widespread distribution of lightweight sensory devices on the surface of each plant. Using flexible and biocompatible materials coupled with a smart compact design for a low power and lightweight system, we develop widely deployed, autonomous, and compliant wearables for plants. The demonstrated wearables integrate temperature, humidity and strain sensors, and can be intimately deployed on the soft surface of any plant to remotely and continuously evaluate optimal growth settings. This is enabled through simultaneous detection of environmental conditions while quantitatively tracking the growth rate (viz. elongation). Finally, we establish a nature-inspired origami-assembled 3D-printed “PlantCopter”, used as a launching platform for our plant wearable to enable widespread microclimate monitoring in large fields.Flexible electronics: plants can now wear sensorsThe application of flexible electronics has been shifted from epidermal sensors to the surface of individual plant for microclimate and growth condition monitoring. Prof M. M. Hussain and colleagues from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia develop wearable electronic system for plants with localized monitoring function. They borrow the wisdom from human wearable electronics to adopt and re-design the flexible, lightweight and biocompatible materials and electronic components to match the field requirements of plants-wearable electronics. They show integrated temperature, humidity and strain sensing and real-time plant growth monitoring and diagnosing. The approach reported in this work is potentially scalable to be applied to large fields and opens up the possibilities to customized investigation and optimization in plant sciences.