Novel Medical Robotic Hand Using Rubbery Semiconductor

Smart electronic skin and medical robotic hand that is capable of assessing vital diagnostic data have been developed by researchers.

The medical robotic hand is made by using a novel rubbery semiconductor with high carrier mobility. This material can be easily scaled for manufacturing as it is based upon assembly at the interface of air and water.

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‘Rubbery electronic devices like smart electronic skin and medical robotic hand can be developed by using stretchable semiconductor materials. The electrical performance of the material is retained even when the material is stretched by 50%.’

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Using an interfacial assembly and rubbery electronic devices suggests a pathway that mimics the mechanical softness of biological tissues. The medical robotic hand and smart skin are just two potential applications. The material can be suitable for a variety of emerging applications.

Traditional semiconductors are brittle and require special mechanical accommodations to use them as stretchable electronics.

The drawbacks with the previous stretchable semiconductors are:

low carrier mobility - the speed at which charge carriers can move through a material
complicated fabrication requirements

The researchers noted that adding minute amounts of metallic carbon nanotubes to the rubbery semiconductor of P3HT (polydimethylsiloxane composite) improves carrier mobility. This majorly governs the performances of semiconductor transistors.

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The production of these stretchable semiconducting nanofilms and the development of fully rubbery transistors is simple. A commercially available semiconductor material is first dissolved in a solution and dropped on water. It spreads on water, and the chemical solvent evaporates from the solution. This results in improved semiconductor properties.

The electrical performance is retained even when the semiconductor is stretched by 50%. It is a notable advance as even the human skin can only be stretched to 30% without tearing.

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Source-Medindia

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