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Double-Framed Thin Elastomer Devices.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Criscuolo, Valeria 
Montoya, Nerio Andrés 
Lo Presti, Andrea 
Occhipinti, Luigi G 
Netti, Paolo Antonio 

Abstract

Elastomers and, in particular, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) are widely adopted as biocompatible mechanically compliant substrates for soft and flexible micro-nanosystems in medicine, biology, and engineering. However, several applications require such low thicknesses (e.g., <100 μm) that make peeling-off critical because very thin elastomers become delicate and tend to exhibit strong adhesion with carriers. Moreover, microfabrication techniques such as photolithography use solvents which swell PDMS, introducing complexity and possible contamination, thus limiting industrial scalability and preventing many biomedical applications. Here, we combine low-adhesion and rectangular carrier substrates, adhesive Kapton frames, micromilling-defined shadow masks, and adhesive-neutralizing paper frames for enabling fast, easy, green, contaminant-free, and scalable manufacturing of thin elastomer devices, with both simplified peeling and handling. The accurate alignment between the frame and shadow masks can be further facilitated by micromilled marking lines on the back side of the low-adhesion carrier. As a proof of concept, we show epidermal sensors on a 50 μm-thick PDMS substrate for measuring strain, the skin bioimpedance and the heart rate. The proposed approach paves the way to a straightforward, green, and scalable fabrication of contaminant-free thin devices on elastomers for a wide variety of applications.

Description

Keywords

Kapton-paper frame, contaminant-free epidermal devices, double-framed thin elastomer devices, epidermal electronics, peel-off, thin PDMS devices, Biocompatible Materials, Dimethylpolysiloxanes, Elastomers, Electric Impedance, Electrocardiography, Electrodes, Electronics, Epidermis, Humans

Journal Title

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1944-8244
1944-8252

Volume Title

12

Publisher

American Chemical Society (ACS)

Rights

All rights reserved