Events Calendar

AME Seminar

Speaker: Cunjiang Yu, University of Houston

Talk Title: Manufacturing and Device Innovations of Rubbery and Curvy Electronics: Toward a Seamless Integration with Humans

Abstract: While human tissues and organs are mostly soft and curvy; conventional electronics are hard and planar. Seamlessly merging electronics with human is of imminent importance in addressing grant societal challenges in health and joy of living. However, the main challenge lies in the huge mechanical mismatch between the current form of rigid electronics and the soft curvy nature of biology.

In this talk, I will first describe a new form of electronics, namely rubbery electronics, with skin-like softness and stretchability, which is constructed based upon elastic rubbery electronic materials. As the core basis of rubbery electronics, rubbery semiconductor has been developed through composite engineering based on commercial available materials and manufactured in a scalable and reliable manner. These manufacturing and device innovations set a foundation to realize fully rubbery electronics, circuits and sensors. In particular, rubbery transistors, logic gates, integrated electronics, sensors, smart skins, implants, neuro devices, and integrated function systems will be demonstrated. In the second part of the talk, I will introduce the invention and development of conformal additive stamp (CAS) printing, a novel, reliable and versatile manufacturing technology for developing 3D curvy electronics. Electronics with 3D curvilinear layouts, especially in the size range from millimeter to centimeter with accuracy of microns, are technically very challenge to build. The major hurdle lies in the lack of a proper manufacturing technology. CAS printing has therefore been developed to solve this long-standing manufacturing challenge. Systematic understanding and extensive employment of CAS printing for various curvy electronics will be presented to illustrate its manufacturing fidelity. Devices such as smart contact lens with integrated sensors and electronics for multiple diagnostic functions will be demonstrated. Soft and curvy electronics have open a new paradigm for personal healthcare, medical diagnosis, biological studies, human-machine interfaces, soft machines, etc.

Cunjiang Yu is currently the Bill D. Cook Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston, with joint appointments in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering. He completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering within three years at Arizona State University in 2010 and was trained as a postdoc at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign before joining University of Houston in 2013. Dr. Yu was a recipient of NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, MIT Technology Review 35 Top Innovators under the age of 35 -“ TR35 China, Society of Manufacturing Engineers Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, Young Investigator Awards from American Vacuum Society and American Chemical Society, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and a few research and teaching awards at University of Houston. His recent research has been reported or highlighted by many media outlets, such as Time, Discovery, BBC News, NBC News, Science News, USA Today, etc.

Monday, April 8, 2019
3:30 PM
Laufer Library (RRB 208)
Refreshments will be served at 3:15 pm.

Host: AME Department

Location: Robert Glen Rapp Engineering Research Building (RRB) - 208 (Laufer Library)

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Tessa Yao