A Multifunctional Electronic Skin Empowered with Damage Mapping and Autonomic Self Healing

Author(s): Hossam Haick

Integrating self-healing capabilities into soft electronic devices and sensors is important for increasing their reliability, longevity and sustainability. Although some advances in self-healing soft electronics have been made, many challenges have been hindering their integration in digital electronics and their use in real-world conditions. We report on an electronic skin (e-skin) with high sensing performance toward temperature, pressure and pH levels - both at ambient and/or in underwater conditions. The e-skin is empowered with a novel self-repair capability that consists of an intrinsic mechanism for efficient self-healing of small-scale damages as well as an extrinsic mechanism for damage mapping and on-demand self-healing of bigscale damages in designated locations. The overall design is based on a multilayered structure that integrates a neuron-like nanostructured network for self-monitoring and damage detection and an array of electrical heaters for selective self-repair. This system has significantly enhanced self-healing capabilities; for example, it can decrease the healing time of micro-scratches from 24 hr to 30 sec. The developed electronic platform lays down the foundation for the development of a new sub-category of self-healing devices in which electronic circuit design is used for self-monitoring, healing and restoring proper device function.

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