Supple Nanomaterial Gloves Mimic Human Fingertips

Advanced surgical gloves could be capable of responding with high precision to the stresses and strains associated with touch and finger movement.

Researchers at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, USA), Northwestern University (Chicago, IL, USA) and Dalian University of Technology (China) have developed semiconductor nanomaterials, advanced fabrication methods, and unusual device designs for a class of ultrathin, stretchable, silicon-based electronics and soft sensors capable of integration onto the inner and outer surfaces of thin, elastomeric sheets in closed-tube geometries, specially formed for mounting on the fingertips.


The electrotactile stimulation devices, according to the researchers, could be mounted onto an artificial “skin” and placed via the gloves on the surgeons' fingertips, and are a step towards the creation of surgical gloves for use in medical procedures such as local ablations and ultrasound scans. The electronic circuit on the “skin” is made of patterns of gold conductive lines and ultrathin sheets of silicon, integrated onto a flexible polymer called polyimide. The sheet is then etched into open mesh geometry and transferred to a thin sheet of silicone rubber molded into the precise shape of a finger.

The electronic finger cuff is designed to measure the stresses and strains at the fingertip by measuring the change in capacitance--the ability to store electrical charge--of pairs of microelectrodes in the circuit. Applied forces decreased the spacing in the skin, which, in turn, increased the capacitance. The fingertip device could also be fitted with sensors for measuring motion and temperature, with small-scale heaters as actuators for ablation, and other related operations. The study was published in the August 10, 2012, issue of Nanotechnology.

“Perhaps the most important result is that we are able to incorporate multifunctional, silicon semiconductor device technologies into the form of soft, three-dimensional, form-fitting skins, suitable for integration not only with the fingertips but also other parts of the body,” said lead author Professor John Rogers, PhD, of the University of Illinois, and colleagues of the department of materials science and engineering. “Imagine the ability to sense the electrical properties of tissue, and then locally remove that tissue, precisely by local ablation, all via the fingertips using smart surgical gloves.”

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University of Illinois
Northwestern University
Dalian University of Technology