A Flexible Tribotronic Artificial Synapse with Bioinspired Neurosensory Behavior

As key components of artificial afferent nervous systems,synaptic devices can mimic the physiological synaptic behaviors,which have attracted extensive attentions.Here,a flexible tribotronic artificial synapse(TAS)with bioinspired neurosensory behavior is developed.The triboelectric potential generated by the external contact electrification is used as the ion-gel-gate voltage of the organic thin film transistor,which can tune the carriers transport through the migration/accumulation of ions.The TAS successfully demonstrates a series of synaptic behaviors by external stimuli,such as excitatory postsynaptic current,paired-pulse facilitation,and the hierarchical memory process from sensory memory to short-term memory and long-term memory.Moreover,the synaptic behaviors remained stable under the strain condition with a bending radius of 20 mm,and the TAS still exhibits excellent durability after 1000 bending cycles.Finally,Pavlovian conditioning has been successfully mimicked by applying force and vibration as food and bell,respectively.This work demonstrates a bioinspired flexible artificial synapse that will help to facilitate the development of artificial afferent nervous systems,which is great significance to the practical application of artificial limbs,robotics,and bionics in future.

Self-powered wireless body area network for multi-joint movements monitoring based on contact-separation direct current triboelectric nanogenerators

Body area network has attracted extensive attention for its applications in athletics,medical,diagnosis,and rehabilitation training in the next generation personalized health care solutions.Here,a contact-separation direct current triboelectric nanogenerators(CSDC-TENGs)based selfpowered wireless body area network(SWBAN)is reported that enables multi-joint movements monitoring for human motion.The CSDC-TENG is designed as a flexible active sensor with an internal contact switch,and the flexible substrate makes the TENG-sensor stick onto skin easily.Due to the internal switch,the CSDC-TENG could generate a DC current,a large instantaneous output voltage exceeds 700 V,and an instantaneous power can reach 1.076 W,which is more than 23000 times higher than that of the traditional contact-separation mode TENG in same size and materials without the switch.By coupling with flexible coil,the fixed high-frequency radio signals can be modulated and emitted clearly ranging from 6 to 16 MHz,which can be wirelessly received and demodulated through a reader.Moreover,the SWBAN is demonstrated in a real time monitoring system for joints motion.This work has realized the wearable TENG for self-powered wireless real-time monitoring of body movements driven by low-frequency human daily activities,which may promote a tremendous development of intelligent healthcare,wireless sensing system and body area network.