KOREAN NET

A joint research team including professors at Hanyang University in Seoul has developed the world's first elastic subtrate material that maintains wirelss signal communication even when stretched or pulled. (Jung Yei Hwan from Hanyang University)

By Kim Hyelin

Domestic researchers have helped develop the world's first elastic substrate that maintains wireless signal communication even if pulled or stretched.

The Ministry of Science and ICT on May 22 said the team of researchers from Hanyang University in Seoul and Rice University in Houston developed an "electronic skin" with rubber-like elasticity that maintains wireless functions. Two of the lead authors of the study are Hanyang professors Jung Yei Hwan and Yoo Hyoungsuk.

The research results were published on May 21 in the international academic journal Nature.

Wearable devices based on the electronic skin used in fields such as medicine and health care need radio frequency (RF) elements and circuits that communicate with the outside and transmit power.

Due to the nature of RF components operating at high frequencies, however, communication is interrupted and power transmission and reception efficiency plummet in the event of even slight stretching or bending. This drastically changes a component's operating frequency band.

To overcome this obstacle, the team developed a substrate mixing ceramic nanoparticles with elastic rubber material and used a process of assembling the nanoparticles by clumping them together within the substrate. This was a world first never before reported in academia.

The electronic skin applied to the new material enables wireless signals even at long distances of 90 m or more by applying the substrate. The skin measures and sends body signals such as brainwaves, physical movements and skin temperature even from long distances, tasks difficult with conventional technology.

kimhyelin211@korea.kr