Conformable ultrasound electronics: from design strategies to healthcare innovation

Conformable electronics have been considered as the future of personal healthcare monitoring and remote diagnosis tools. Nevertheless, numerous electronic devices primarily focused on biosignals originating from the surface layer of the human body, thereby providing only restricted understanding of the deep tissues and organs. Recently, there has been significant research on piezoelectric-based conformable ultrasonic electronics (cUSE) because of their distinct features, such as nonradiative monitoring, soft tissue imaging, deep signal decoding, portability, and biocompatibility. In this talk, Dr. Zhang will provide a detailed illustration of conformable ultrasonic electronics, including piezoelectric materials innovation, electromechanical principle, design strategies of ultrasound transducers and patches, with promising applications in bio-integrated electronics, such as blood pressure monitoring, bladder volume monitoring, and early breast cancer detection. The fabrication strategies and design concepts can be applied to various biological substrates and geometries of interest, and thus have the potential to broadly bridge the gap that exists between rigid, boxy electronics and soft, curvy biology. The progress made in the areas of piezoelectric materials, ultrasonic transducers, and conformable electronics are driving the emergence of a new era in medical devices for personal healthcare.

Dr. Zhang is a materials scientist and electrical engineer who worked as a Research Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. He received his BEng in Electronic Science and Technology and MSc in Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics both at Xi’an Jiaotong University, China. He obtained his PhD degree in Materials Engineering in 2013 at Auburn University, USA. Before joining the Media Lab in 2019, he was postdoctoral researcher in the Department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego, and the Principal Investigator in Electronic Materials Research Laboratory (EMRL) at Xi’an Jiaotong University. Dr. Zhang has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles, including Nature Electronics, Science Advances, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Advanced Materials, Nano Energy, etc. He also has written 3 book chapters and holds 3 U.S. patents. His scientific interests mainly focus on smart materials and flexible electronics, including conformable ultrasound transducers, piezoelectric sensors and transducers, dielectric energy storage devices, and wearable/stretchable electronics.