UCLA team develop flexible self-powered bioelectronic device

The researchers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering discovered that the magnetoelastic effect - the variation of the magnetic properties of a material under mechanical stress - can exist in a soft and flexible system. According to UCLA, the team proved their concept with microscopic magnets dispersed in a paper-thin silicone matrix to generate a magnetic field that changes in strength as the matrix undulated.

The team’s findings have been published in Nature and Nature Materials.

“Our finding opens up a new avenue for practical energy, sensing and therapeutic technologies that are human-body-centric and can be connected to the Internet of Things,” study leader Jun Chen, an assistant professor of bioengineering at UCLA Samueli said in a statement. “What makes this technology unique is that it allows people to stretch and move with comfort when the device is pressed against human skin, and because it relies on magnetism rather than electricity, humidity and our own sweat do not compromise its effectiveness.”

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