Materials and Technologies for Soft Micro-Electronics & MEMS

Featuring Guest Speaker: Dr Virgilio Mattoli

Soft electronics is a rapidly emerging research field focused on the seamless integration of electronic components and devices onto non-rigid, non-planar, and geometrically complex surfaces. A particularly promising approach is based on organic materials and solution-processable technologies, enabling the development of free-standing, ultra-conformable circuits made of polymer films only a few tens of nanometers thick, directly transferable onto skin (“tattoo electronics”) or other irregular substrates. This talk will present recent achievements of our group in this area, including the realization of ultra-thin fully organic electronic devices, epidermal electrodes for bio-signal acquisition, and printed modular systems capable of maintaining high electrical performance under significant mechanical deformation. These technologies open new perspectives toward imperceptible wearable healthcare monitoring platforms, active electronic tattoos, and soft human–machine interfaces. The discussion will also extend from two-dimensional systems to three-dimensional plastic micro-devices, highlighting the combination of soft electronic materials with two-photon polymerization (2PP) for the direct fabrication and seamless integration of complex polymeric micro-structures. This approach enables new opportunities in the development of plastic MEMS, implantable micro-sensors, and multifunctional 3D micro-devices, as demonstrated in recent results obtained within the EU-funded projects 5D NanoPrinting and IV-Lab.