Intrinsically Soft Printed Electronics for Digitally Augmented Human Sensing and Vision

Abstract Augmenting human sensing with wearable electronics has the potential to revolutionize how to interact with the environment, enabling “superhuman” abilities to incorporate new data streams into the daily experience. However, existing soft conductive inks and printing methods for soft electronics microfabrication are limited in their ability to produce the complex multi‐layer circuit architectures required for supporting CMOS cameras and other multiplexed sensing capabilities. Here, this challenge is addressed by introducing a soft‐matter conductive ink that is compatible with direct ink write (DIW) printing for creating complex, sticker‐like, multilayer circuits for augmented human sensing and vision. The ink is composed of fluidic, elastomeric, and nanomaterial phases that enable unique combinations of DIW‐compatible rheology, post‐print elasticity, and electrical conductivity that are tailored for rapid printing of intrinsically soft, multi‐layered digital circuits. The use of electrical overpasses obviates the need for complicated vias, enabling sophisticated circuits to be fabricated in a simple, rapid process with no manual steps. This fabrication approach is validated with three functional demonstrations: a wearable pressure and temperature sensor, a high‐resolution pressure sensing array, and a wearable CMOS camera circuit that livestreams a high‐resolution (1024 × 768) and low‐latency (<0.2 ms) video feed to an augmented reality headset.