Abstract

Miniaturized stretchable strain sensors arekey components in E-skins for applications such as personalizedhealth-monitoring, body motion perception, and human-machine interfaces. However,it remains a big challenge to fabricate miniaturized stretchable strain sensorswith high imperceptibility. Here, we reported for the first time novelultraminiaturized stretchable strain sensors based on single centimeter-longsilicon nanowires (cm-SiNWs). With the diameter of the active materials evensmaller than that of spider silks, these sensors are highly imperceptible. Theyexhibit a large strain sensing range (>45%) and a high durability (>10 000 cycles). Their optimum strain sensing ranges could be modulatedby controlling the prestrains of the stretchable cm-SiNWs. On the basis of thiscapability, sensors with appropriate sensing ranges were chosen to respectivelymonitor large and subtle human motions including joint motion, swallow, and touch.The strategy of applying single cm-SiNWs in stretchable sensors would open newdoors to fabricate ultraminiaturized stretchable devices.