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Updated: Jun 7, 2025

Fabrication and Characterization of a Conformal Skin-like Electronic System for Quantitative, Cutaneous Wound Management
Published on: September 2, 2015
Large Scale Ultrafast Manufacturing of Wireless Soft Bioelectronics Enabled by Autonomous Robot Arm Printing Assisted
Jihyun Kim1,2, Seol-Ha Jeong1, Brendan Craig Thibault1,3
1Division of Engineering in Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02139, USA.
Abstract:
A Customized wound patch for Advanced tissue Regeneration with Electric field (CARE), featuring an autonomous robot arm printing system guided by a computer vision-enabled guidance system for fast image recognition is introduced. CARE addresses the growing demand for flexible, stretchable, and wireless adhesive bioelectronics tailored for electrotherapy, which is suitable for rapid adaptation to individual patients and practical implementation in a comfortable design. The visual guidance system integrating a 6-axis robot arm enables scans from multiple angles to provide a 3D map of complex and curved wounds. The size of electrodes and the geometries of power-receiving coil are essential components of the CARE and are determined by a MATLAB simulation, ensuring efficient wireless power transfer. Three heterogeneous inks possessing different rheological behaviors can be extruded and printed sequentially on the flexible substrates, supporting fast manufacturing of large customized bioelectronic patches. CARE can stimulate wounds up to 10 mm in depth with an electric field strength of 88.8 mV mm-1. In vitro studies reveal the ability to accelerate cell migration by a factor of 1.6 and 1.9 for human dermal fibroblasts and human umbilical vein endothelial cells, respectively. This study highlights the potential of CARE as a clinical wound therapy method to accelerate healing.

