Magnetic functionalities for flexible interactive electronics

The flourishing and eagerness of portable consumer electronics necessitates functional elements to be lightweight, flexible, and even wearable [1,2]. Next generation flexible appliances aim to become fully autonomous and will require ultra-thin and flexible navigation modules, body tracking and relative position monitoring systems. Such devices fulfill the needs of soft robotics [3], functional medical implants [4] as well as epidermal [5], imperceptible [6] and transient [7] electronics. Key building blocks of navigation and position tracking devices are the magnetic field sensors.
We developed the technology platform allowing us to fabricate high-performance shapeable, namely, flexible [8-10], printable [11-13], stretchable [14-16] and even imperceptible [17] magnetic sensorics. The technology relies on smart combination of thin inorganic functional elements prepared directly on flexible or elastomeric supports. The unique mechanical properties open up new application potentials for smart skins, allowing to equip the recipient with a “sixth sense” providing new experiences in sensing and manipulating the objects of the surrounding us physical as well as digital world [10,17].
Combining large-area printable and flexible electronics paves the way towards commercializing the active intelligent packaging, post cards, books or promotional materials that communicate with the environment and provide the respond to the customer. Realization of this vision requires fabrication of printable electronic components that are flexible and can change their properties in the field of a permanent magnet [12]. For this concept, we fabricated high performance magnetic field sensors relying on the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effect, which are printed at pre-defined locations on flexible circuitry and remain fully operational over a temperature range from -10°C up to +95°C, well beyond the requirements for consumer electronics [13]. Our work potentially enables commercial use of high performance magneto-sensitive elements in conventional printable electronic industry, which, although highly demanded, had not yet been possible.
In this talk, I will review the recent advances in the field of shapeable magnetic sensorics and emergent applications of this novel technology.