Science

Drop-printing with dynamic stress release for conformal wrap of bioelectronic interfaces

2025-09-11

Bioelectronic interfaces demonstrate promising applications in health monitoring, medical treatment, and augmented reality. However, conformally wrapping these film devices onto three-dimensional surfaces often leads to stress-induced damage. We propose a “drop-printing” strategy that enables damage-free film transfer using a droplet. The droplet acts as a lubricating layer between the film and the target surface, facilitating local sliding during shape-adaptive deformation. This mechanism prevents in-plane film stretching and reduces stress concentration. Even nonstretchable and fragile films can be intactly and accurately wrapped onto delicate surfaces, such as microscale microorganisms and optical fibers. Two-micrometer-thick silicon films, without any stretchable engineering, can form conformal neural-electronic interfaces by being drop-printed on nerves and brain tissue. The interfaces achieve light-controlled in vivo neuromodulation with high spatiotemporal resolution.

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DOI https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adw6854