Stretchable electronics

The innovation of this circuit comes from the material used to enable it to stretch.

This innovative material is a hybrid of materials, essentially a combination of liquid, metal and solid metallic alloys wrapped in a stretchy polymer.

This innovation of materials allow for the circuits to quadruple in length whilst maintaining it’s electrical connection.

A significant benefit in this innovation allows for a much better integration into a variety of applications, most notably wearable tech, in the form of fashion. Integration into devices and garments, allowing for a range of functionality.

Smart skin circuits that can offer tactile feedback, biological sensors, electrical prosthetics and electrical solutions sewn into textile, a whole new world of possibilities is achievable.

This product may be utilised as a synthetic skin to aid prosthetics and improve both realism, functionality, durability and dexterity of these for the wearer – a significant leap in the right direction.

Integrated into fabrics and used in connected clothing it could allow for both practical and artistic opportunities. In this form, as its flexibility allows for the following of shape and movements of the human body, it could be used for sensors designed to monitor particular biological functions or look to “update” a garments properties based on the changing environment or climate one is in.

Consider a shirt that is smart enough to be cooler in the day and become warmer at night based on integration of this sort of technology.

“We can come up with all sorts of uses, in forms that are complex, moving or that change over time,”

said Hadrien Michaud, a PhD student at the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces (LSBI) and one of the study authors.

Quite an amazing sudy into the material and its applications continues to develop. Before too long, perhaps we will see (or rather not see) the seamless integration into so many devices around us for the better. Exciting!

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