via EurekaAlert!
Ultrastretchable and deformable bioprobes using Kirigami designs
A research team in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering and the Electronics-Inspired Interdisciplinary Research Institute (EIIRIS) at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed an ultrastretchable bioprobe using Kirigami designs. The Kirigami-based bioprobe enables one to follow the shape of spherical and large deformable biological samples such as heart and brain tissues. In addition, its low strain-force characteristic reduces the force induced on organs, thereby enabling minimally invasive biological signal recording. The results of their research will be published in Advanced Healthcare Materials on December 8, 2017.
High stretchability and deformability are promising properties to increase the applications of flexible film electronics including sensors, actuators, and energy harvesters. In particular, they have great potential for applications related to three-dimensional soft biological samples such as organs and tissues that exhibit large and rapid changes in their surface area and volume (e.g., a beating heart). However, conventional elastomer-based stretchable devices require a large strain-force to stretch it, that arises from an intrinsic material property. This makes it impossible to follow the deformation of soft biological tissues, thereby preventing natural deformation and growth. For device applications pertaining to soft biological samples, it is extremely important to reduce the strain-force characteristic of the stretchable devices to realize low invasiveness and safe measurements.
A research team in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering and the EIIRIS at Toyohashi University of Technology has developed an ultrastretchable bioprobe using Kirigami designs.
“To realize the ultrastretchable bioprobe with low strain-force characteristic, we used a Kirigami design as the device pattern. The remarkable feature of Kirigami is that rigid and unstretchable materials can be rendered more stretchable compared to other elastomer-based stretchable materials. The stretching mechanism is based on an out-of-plane bending of the thin film rather than stretching of the material; therefore, the strain-stress characteristic is extremely low compared to that of elastomer-based stretchable devices,” explains the first author of the article, Ph.D. candidate Yusuke Morikawa.
The leader of the research team, Associate Professor Takeshi Kawano, said, “The idea germinated in my mind one morning when I woke up and saw my son playing with Origami and Kirigami. I saw him realize high stretchability of the paper while creating the Kirigami designs. This made me wonder whether it is possible to develop stretchable electronics using the concept of Kirigami. Surprisingly, our preliminary studies on Kirigami-based parylene films by microelectromechanical systems technology exhibited high stretchability of 1,100%. In addition, we are extremely excited that the fabricated Kirigami-based bioprobes possess the distinct advantages of high stretchability and deformability, and are capable of recording biological signals from the cortical surface and beating heart of a mouse.”
The research team believes that the Kirigami-based bioprobes can also be used to probe tissues and organs that exhibit time-dependent changes in their surface and volume due to growth or disease. This is expected to lead to the eventual realization of a completely new measurement method that can be instrumental in understanding the mechanisms governing growth and diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Learn more: Revolutionizing electronics using Kirigami
The Latest on: Kirigami electronics
- News Releaseson January 10, 2021 at 4:00 pm
Investigating how latent pesticides affect public health. Creating window coatings that reduce buildings’ heating and cooling costs. Developing policies to promote land conservation. Examining what ...
- Self-Folding Materials Assemble Autonomously Into Robotson January 7, 2021 at 4:00 pm
A graphic demonstrates how researchers used kirigami-inspired techniques to design thin sheets of material that automatically reconfigure into new two-dimensional (2D) shapes and three-dimensional (3D ...
- Mathematics newson January 5, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Weak students in high-performing math classes, especially boys, feel more shame compared to students in low-performing math classes. Stronger students, in turn, feel more bored and enjoy ...
- Circuit Board Origami Puts You Face-to-Face With Low-Poly Electronicson December 26, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Paper craft has been around almost as long as paper itself. It’s fun to mimic paper craft and origami with low-poly 3D prints, and [Stephen Hawes] wondered whether it could be done with copper ...
- Japanese art technique inspires new engineering techniqueon December 24, 2020 at 3:53 pm
Kirigami comes from the Japanese words "kiru" (to cut) and "kami" (paper) and is a traditional form of art in which paper is precisely cut and transformed into a 3D object. Using thin films of ...
- Japanese artform inspires new engineering techniqueon December 22, 2020 at 10:26 am
Kirigami comes from the Japanese words "kiru" (to cut) and "kami" (paper) and is a traditional form of art in which paper is precisely cut and transformed into a 3-D object. Using thin films of ...
- Paper-folding art reduced to the nanoscale in engineering breakthroughon December 21, 2020 at 4:00 pm
While origami gets a lot of the attention, a variation of this called kirigami also has plenty to offer. A team of scientists has taken this technique down to the nanoscale for the first time ...
- Paper art inspires robots that go from 2D to 3Don December 16, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Kirigami-inspired techniques have allowed researchers to design thin sheets of material that automatically reconfigure into new two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional structures in response ...
- Engineering in Motion Newson December 12, 2020 at 9:12 am
Watch the latest breakthroughs unfold before your eyes, consumer electronics in action, DIY and tutorial sessions, as well as news briefs and engineer commentaries.
- Art + Engineeringon May 25, 2018 at 9:49 pm
For example, Professor Yonggang Huang shared how kirigami, the Japanese paper art of folding and ... was inspired by a meeting with professor Huang and by his work on stretchable, flexible electronics ...
via Google News and Bing News
