Fully rubbery synaptic transistors made out of all-organic materials for elastic neurological electronic skin
Hyunseok Shim, Seonmin Jang, Jae Gyu Jang, Zhoulyu Rao, Jong‐In Hong, Kyoseung Sim, Cunjiang Yu
Abstract
Neurologic function implemented soft organic electronic skin holds promise for wide range of applications, such as skin prosthetics, neurorobot, bioelectronics, human-robotic interaction (HRI), etc. Here, we report the development of a fully rubbery synaptic transistor which consists of all-organic materials, which shows unique synaptic characteristics existing in biological synapses. These synaptic characteristics retained even under mechanical stretch by 30%. We further developed a neurological electronic skin in a fully rubbery format based on two mechanoreceptors (for synaptic potentiation or depression) of pressure-sensitive rubber and an all-organic synaptic transistor. By converting tactile signals into Morse Code, potentiation and depression of excitatory postsynaptic current (EPSC) signals allow the neurological electronic skin on a human forearm to communicate with a robotic hand. The collective studies on the materials, devices, and their characteristics revealed the fundamental aspects and applicability of the all-organic synaptic transistor and the neurological electronic skin.