Empowering Wearable Health Tech: Robust Electrical Interfaces for Next-Gen Soft Electronics

The growing interest in soft electronics stems from their exceptional comfortability on human skin and biological systems, facilitating continuous and accurate monitoring of various physiological signals, including those relevant to athletes' performance evaluation and health monitoring. However, conventional electrical connectors experience concentrated stress points, leading to detachment from soft materials due to mechanical incompatibility. Soft elastic materials like rubbers often exhibit poor adhesion to solid materials when using traditional adhesives, resulting in loose wires and disconnection. Therefore, we need innovative design approaches to bridge materials with contrasting moduli.

Our goal is to devise a universal, mechanically robust, high-density electrical wiring solution tailored for soft electronics fabricated with elastomers (e.g., silicone) and liquid metal electrodes (e.g., gallium-based alloys). Currently, there exists no standardized procedure for the system-level integration of stretchable electronics with conventional counterparts. Researchers often resort to manual wire placement or adhesive bonding, leading to repetitive reconnections during experimentation. By introducing a mechanically robust, high-density electrical connector, we aim to establish a standardized process, akin to flexible PCB ribbons, for the integration of stretchable electronics. This advancement will pave the way for improved consistency and efficacy in the evaluation of soft electronics across diverse applications.