{"id":3815,"date":"2014-12-10T20:11:40","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T18:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=3815"},"modified":"2019-12-01T20:28:03","modified_gmt":"2019-12-01T18:28:03","slug":"stretchable-%e2%80%8bsilicon-nanoribbon-electronics-for-skin-prosthesis-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=3815","title":{"rendered":"Stretchable \u200bsilicon nanoribbon electronics for skin prosthesis [science<fiction]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>New technology now allows for artifical skin that is sensitive to mechanical deformation, temperature and wetness\u00a0 [<a class=\"papercite_bibcite\" href=\"#paperkey_0\">1<\/a>]. From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/ncomms\/2014\/141209\/ncomms6747\/full\/ncomms6747.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the article<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px;\"><em>Sensory receptors in human skin transmit a wealth of tactile and thermal signals from external environments to the brain. Despite advances in our understanding of mechano- and thermosensation, replication of these unique sensory characteristics in artificial skin and prosthetics remains challenging. Recent efforts to develop smart prosthetics, which exploit rigid and\/or semi-flexible pressure, strain and temperature sensors, provide promising routes for sensor-laden bionic systems, but with limited stretchability, detection range and spatio-temporal resolution. Here we demonstrate smart prosthetic skin instrumented with ultrathin, single crystalline \u200bsilicon nanoribbon strain, pressure and temperature sensor arrays as well as associated humidity sensors, electroresistive heaters and stretchable multi-electrode arrays for nerve stimulation. This collection of stretchable sensors and actuators facilitate highly localized mechanical and thermal skin-like perception in response to external stimuli, thus providing unique opportunities for emerging classes of prostheses and peripheral nervous system interface technologies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=3815\/#Whom_it_may_concern\" >Whom it may concern?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=3815\/#Critical_issues\" >Critical issues<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=3815\/#Outlook\" >Outlook<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Whom_it_may_concern\"><\/span>Whom it may concern?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>When the ultimate goal of this type of prosthetic skin is to enable amputees to feel various types of external stimuli, as the paper states, then of course you have me interested in whether you successfully convinced someone to lend their arm, or what else it was that was done to get this on the road. While the research clearly targets arm amputees as potential recipients of these new things, the Korean based paper only mentions animal experiments in their method section, while explaining some results of tracking hands of wrists obviously of human subjects that are unknown from the method section. We thus are left in the dark about what, actually, was done experimentally, exactly to whom, and whether there was informed consent of any kind.<\/p>\n<p>However, the paper appears to address possible future arm amputee needs.<\/p>\n<p>Given that, it is interesting to see just how little actual prosthetic hands move in a way as it has been shown and tested here. The image shows interesting abduction and adduction measurements of this new flexible silicone, but that hardly makes sense for a prosthetic hand.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/naturestretchpaper.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3823\" src=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/naturestretchpaper.jpg\" alt=\"naturestretchpaper\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Critical_issues\"><\/span>Critical issues<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Neural implants. Nanoparticles such as Ceria or Zirconia are used to suppress ROS (reactive oxygen species) enrichment which may be neurotoxic depending on specifics. The nanoparticles themselves are also potentially harmful; cells definitely react to such nanoparticles, and it is not totally clear how to avoid dissemination throughout the body. Yet, neural implants for direct signal hook-up seems to be crucial. Not just epimysial electrodes that are used for motor control. Then, ROS enrichment apparently can cause massive inflammatory responses and that can cause the death of nerve cells and damage the peripheral nervous system.<\/li>\n<li>Actual mapping. The very high density of nerves in a human hand correlates with the fact that a large area of our cortical brain maps to the hand, both for motor output and sensor input. That link is cut when the hand and arm part is amputated. Other brain areas are mostly not available, as they should be used for other stuff. Very high sensor density is certainly great, but before their output is fed into a person, why not coalesce them in some way.<\/li>\n<li>Grip and stretch. The better the grip, the less slip, the greater the friction and thus stretch forces. The worse the grip, the less useful the prosthetic hand as such. So really, before anything else, we need a glove that does survive simple things like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=2429\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">carrying furniture<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=2965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">car washing<\/a> before stretch forces actually become an issue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Outlook\"><\/span>Outlook<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Where I do see an application for this type of sensor equipped silicone material is for control liners. So far, liners are mostly used for suspension (only). However, control increasingly becomes an issue, and thus control liners will be a relevant issue in the near future. Prosthetic hands that theoretically allow for single digit control are available, all that is missing is an easy to train control system. And liners can be more comfortable <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/?p=2979\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">than they currently are<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That silicone product could be used to generate very dense and precise surface measurements of muscle contraction and displacement, as well as other variables, in order to extract actual grip patterns if not finger movements. That, in conjunction with surface EMG, is where I would assume a rather powerful future for this material, in context of below elbow prosthetic arm research.<\/p>\n<div id=\"paperkey_0\" class=\"papercite_entry\">[1]                   J. Kim, M. Lee, H. J. Shim, R. Ghaffari, H. R. Cho, D. Son, Y. H. Jung, M. Soh, C. Choi, S. Jung, K. Chu, D. Jeon, S. Lee, J. H. Kim, S. H. Choi, T. Hyeon, and D. Kim, &#8220;Stretchable silicon nanoribbon electronics for skin      prosthesis,&#8221; <span style=\"font-style: italic\">Nature Communications<\/span>, vol. 5, 2014\/12\/09\/online. <br \/>    <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" id=\"papercite_0\" class=\"papercite_toggle\">[Bibtex]<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"papercite_bibtex\" id=\"papercite_0_block\">\n<pre><code class=\"tex bibtex\">@Article{jaemin2014,\r\n  author = {Jaemin Kim and Mincheol Lee and Hyung Joon Shim and\r\n     Roozbeh Ghaffari and Hye Rim Cho and Donghee Son and Yei\r\n     Hwan Jung and Min Soh and Changsoon Choi and Sungmook Jung\r\n     and Kon Chu and Daejong Jeon and Soon-Tae Lee and Ji Hoon Kim and Seung \r\n  Hong Choi and Taeghwan Hyeon and Dae-Hyeong Kim},\r\n  title = {Stretchable silicon nanoribbon electronics for skin\r\n     prosthesis},\r\n  journal = {Nature Communications},\r\n  volume = {5},\r\n  pages = {},\r\n  year = {2014\/12\/09\/online},\r\n  entrydate = {2014\/12\/10},\r\n  abstract = {Sensory receptors in human skin transmit a wealth of\r\n     tactile and thermal signals from external environments to the\r\n     brain. Despite advances in our understanding of mechano- and\r\n     thermosensation, replication of these unique sensory\r\n     characteristics in artificial skin and prosthetics remains\r\n     challenging. Recent efforts to develop smart prosthetics, which\r\n     exploit rigid and\/or semi-flexible pressure, strain and\r\n     temperature sensors, provide promising routes for sensor-laden\r\n     bionic systems, but with limited stretchability, detection range\r\n     and spatio-temporal resolution. Here we demonstrate smart\r\n     prosthetic skin instrumented with ultrathin, single crystalline\r\n     silicon nanoribbon strain, pressure and temperature sensor arrays\r\n     as well as associated humidity sensors, electroresistive heaters\r\n     and stretchable multi-electrode arrays for nerve stimulation. This\r\n     collection of stretchable sensors and actuators facilitate highly\r\n     localized mechanical and thermal skin-like perception in response\r\n     to external stimuli, thus providing unique opportunities for\r\n     emerging classes of prostheses and peripheral nervous system\r\n     interface technologies.},\r\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=swisswuff\" class=\"twitter-share-button\" data-size=\"large\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New technology now allows for artifical skin that is sensitive to mechanical deformation, temperature and wetness\u00a0 [1]. From the article: Sensory receptors in human skin transmit a wealth of tactile and thermal signals from external environments to the brain. Despite advances in our understanding of mechano- and thermosensation, replication of these unique sensory characteristics in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,28,8,7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-research-under-the-amputee-excuse-tae","category-disability-public","category-prosthetics","category-science-fiction","category-support","wpcat-115-id","wpcat-28-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-7-id","wpcat-1-id"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 02:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3815"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10614,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3815\/revisions\/10614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swisswuff.ch\/tech\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}