Self‐Adhesive Electronic Skin with Bio‐Inspired 3D Architecture for Mechanical Stimuli Monitoring and Human‐Machine Interactions

Abstract Recent development of wearable devices is revolutionizing the way of artificial electronic skins (E‐skin), physiological health monitoring and human‐machine interactions (HMI). However, challenge remains to fit flexible electronic devices to the human skin with conformal deformation and identifiable electrical feedback according to the mechanical stimuli. Herein, an adhesive E‐skin is developed that can firmly attach on the human skin for mechanical stimuli perception. The laser‐induced adhesive layer serves as the essential component to ensure the conformal attachment of E‐skin on curved surface, which ensures the accurate conversion from mechanical deformation to precise electrical readouts. Especially, the 3D architecture facilitates the non‐overlapping outputs that bi‐directional joint bending and distinguishes strain/pressure. The optimized E‐skin with bio‐inspired micro‐cilia exhibited significantly improved sensing performances with sensitivity of 0.652 kPa −1 in 0–4 kPa and gauge factor of 8.13 for strain (0–15%) with robustness. Furthermore, the adhesive E‐skin can distinguish inward/outward joint bending in non‐overlapping behaviors, allowing the establishment of ternary system to expand communication capacity for logic outputs such as effective Morse code and intelligent control. It expects that the adhesive E‐skin can serve as a functional bridge between human and electrical terminals for applications from daily mechanical monitoring to efficient HMI.