Electronic tattoos (2019)

Scientists from the College of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and the Institute of Systems and Robotics, University of Coimbra, Portugal, have developed an efficient way to electronically create robust, highly flexible electronic tattoos based on the use of computer technology..

Electronic tattoos (2019) – facts

An inexpensive process involves tracing an electrically conductive liquid metal alloy onto the tattoo paper attached to the skin. Ultra-thin tattoos are as easy to apply as children’s decorative tattoos.

Other devices for tattooing provide a specially equipped room, a separate place, as well as a special material for the production of tattoo images on human skin..

Carmel Majidi, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Mahmoud Tavakoli, director of the University of Coimbra’s Software and Printed Microelectronics Laboratory, worked closely to develop a method for direct printing of stretched electronic circuits. A new way to apply electronic tattoos was developed as part of the Strechtonics project, which exists under the Carnegie Mellon-Portugal Entrepreneurship Research Program funded by the Fund for Technical Development (FCT) under the direct supervision of Professor Anibal Tras de Almeida.

Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Carmel Majidi discusses electronic tattoos, which are circuits of silver nanoparticles printed on the same film as children’s tattoos. Electronic tattoos, applied using new principles and technologies, will easily find their application in many areas – from programs aimed at protecting health, to the gaming industry, as personal gaming electronic devices..

According to Tavakoli, this electronic imaging invention represents a breakthrough in printed electronics. The result of the device is presented in the form of inkjet-printed patterns of silver nanoparticles sintered at room temperature through the action of an indium gallium alloy. Eliminating the need for high temperatures, the new sintering method is comparable to the use of thin-film and heat-sensitive substrates.

In addition to the low cost of processing and production, electronic tattoos have many other advantages and benefits compared to the methods used today. The mechanical properties of the new tattoos are reminiscent of working with lightweight fabrics. They easily bend, fold, withstand other mechanical influences, including stretching, to which human skin is prone (within 30%). 3D image modeling options become available for e-tattoo production.

Applications for new electronic ultra-thin tattoo technology include biomonitoring, robotics software, soft displays and printed electronics aimed at 3D imaging..

The news of the emergence of a new technology for electronic tattooing was published in the materials of an article entitled “The use of gallium with electronic action at room temperature with sintering of silver nanoparticles for movable, inkjet printing and in the work of thin-film electronics”.

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Prepared by: free-text (Denisova Natalya Alekseevna)