Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Direct Interfacing of Soft and Hard Electronics for Wearable Health Monitoring

© 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 1 wileyonlinelibrary.com signal-to-noise ratio.[8–10] In addition, these sensors are configurable and can be fabricated in different sizes and shapes that better suit the diverse human population. However, these flexible sensors require rigid silicon-based integrated circuits (ICs) for data processing and communications.[11–13] Although the tremendous mechanical mismatch of hard electronics and the soft human skin hinders sensor– skin interface, silicon ICs provide unparalleled computational performance at lower power than their flexible counterparts based on organic/inorganic materials.[14,15] Therefore, a hybrid solution with soft and hard electronics is well suited, where flexible devices are used for soft biointerfaces and hard electronics are used for computation, signal processing, and data transmission. Printed sensors provide a distinct advantage over rigid sensors at establishing high-fidelity sensor–skin interfaces due to their inherently flexible material systems and form factors. Hence, these sensors are suitable for monitoring vital signs as well as analytes in bodily fluids.[16–18] Flexible hybrid electronics (FHE) are a fundamental enabling technology for system-level implementation of these novel printed and flexible devices. FHE bring together soft and hard electronics into a single platform, where the soft devices are used for conformal Flexible Hybrid Electronics: Direct Interfacing of Soft and Hard Electronics for Wearable Health Monitoring