Ultrathin e-skin could display medical information

The electronic skin, or e-skin, is described in the journal Scientific Advances. It consists of a protective film less than two micrometres thick made from alternating layers of inorganic silicon oxynitrite and organic parylene. Under this, transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes are attached to an ultrathin substrate.

Combining the electrodes with the film enabled the team to create polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs) thin enough to attach to skin, but flexible enough to adapt to body movement. The PLEDs are just three micrometres thick and over six times more efficient than other ultrathin PLEDs. According to the researchers, this makes the e-skin suitable for medical applications such as displaying patients’ blood oxygen concentration or pulse rate, and could even change the way people interact with each other.

"The advent of mobile phones has changed the way we communicate,” said Professor Takao Someya from the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering.