UNCLASSIFIED

IMS Rapid Response 2017 * Recipient Guest Seminar

Professor Sheng XuJacobs School of EngineeringUC San Diego

A Hybridized Approach to Wearable Electronics:Materials Design and Advanced Microfabrication

Wednesday, August 9, 201711:00 - 12:00Sig Hecker Conference Room (TA-03 Bldg 32 - Room 134)

Abstract: Wearable devices that are capable of acquiring multichannel physiological signals from the human bodyrepresent an important trend for healthcare monitoring, consumer electronics, and human-machine interface. Theresulting search for pliable building blocks calls for approaches to bridge the gap between conventional highperformance hard materials and soft biology. Combined strategies of materials design and advanced microfabricationon the system level present unique opportunities. In this presentation, I will discuss a rationally designed “island-bridge” matrix that allows hybridizing hard materials with soft substrates. Specifically, the hard components areintegrated on the predefined distributed islands, and the wavy bridges will buckle out of the plane to absorb theexternally applied stress. The result is a fully functional system that is rigid locally in the islands, but soft globally thatenables conformal integration with the curvilinear human body. Demonstrated prototypes include a multichannelhealth monitor that can sense local field potentials, temperature, and acceleration, and wirelessly transmit theacquired data to the backend receiver. This is a platform technology, which holds profound implications forintegrating a broad range of sensors, actuators, and circuit components, for diagnosing and treating a broad range ofhealth conditions.

Bio: Sheng Xu was appointed in July 2015 as an assistant professor in the Department of NanoEngineering at UCSan Diego. He was a postdoctoral research associate in Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory from 2011 to2015 at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he developed advanced wearable electronic systems forhealthcare and energy applications. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering in 2010 at GeorgiaInstitute of Technology, focusing on oxide nanowire arrays for energy sciences. He obtained his B.S. in Chemistryand Molecular Engineering from Peking University in Beijing, China in 2006. His research has been recognized by aseries of awards, including the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, Samsung Global Research Outreach Award, andInternational Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Prize for Young Chemists.

Hosted by Jinkyoung YooSponsored by the Institute for Materials Science

For General Information Contact:Jinkyoung Yoo * jyoo@lanl.gov * 664-0209

Institute for Materials Science