Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

E-textiles at CES 2019

Once again, CES 2019 displayed many examples of e-textile products throughout the exhibition floor. As ever, companies ranged from early stage start-ups scattered throughout "Eureka Park", through to some of the best known and longest established players with booths (generally in the Sands Expo). In this article, we will describe our overall impressions, followed by listing summaries of each of the companies that we visited and interviewed.

A novel material for transparent and flexible displays

The next generation of flexible and transparent displays will require a high-performing and flexible polymeric material that has the optical and thermal properties of glass. The material must be transparent to visible light and have a low coefficient of thermal expansion. Unfortunately, such a polymeric material has not been available.

KAIST OBELAB

KAIST OBELAB showed its research on a brain imaging system NIRSIT at CES 2019

Shape-conformable batteries based on 3D-printing technology

Flexible, wireless electronic devices are rapidly emerging and have reached the level of commercialization; nevertheless, most of battery shapes are limited to either spherical and/or rectangular structures, which results in inefficient space use.

Silk adhesive paves the way for epidermal electronics

Producing effective epidermal electronics requires a strong, biocompatible interface between a biological surface and a sensor. A research team has employed a calcium-modified silk fibroin as a biocompatible and strong adhesive. This technology led to the development of epidermal electronics with strong adhesion for patients who need drug injections and physiological monitoring over a long time.

Flexible transparent force touch sensor

Researchers reported a high-performance and transparent nanoforce touch sensor by developing a thin, flexible, and transparent hierarchical nanocomposite film. The research team says their sensor simultaneously features all the necessary characters for industrial-grade application: high sensitivity, transparency, bending insensitivity, and manufacturability.

Spray coated tactile sensor on a 3D surface for robotic skin

Robots will be able to conduct a wide variety of tasks as well as humans if they can be given tactile sensing capabilities. A research team has reported a stretchable pressure insensitive strain sensor by using an all solution-based process.

Improved efficiency of CQD solar cells using an organic thin film

Recently, the power conversion efficiency of colloidal quantum dot -based solar cells has been enhanced, paving the way for their commercialization in various fields; nevertheless, they are still a long way from being commercialized due to their efficiency not matching their stability.

Flexible drug delivery microdevice to advance precision medicine

A research team has developed a flexible drug delivery device with controlled release for personalized medicine, blazing the path toward theragnosis.

LG expands investments in robot innovators

LG Electronics' recent investment in US-based Bossa Nova Robotics marks the first overseas investment in a robotics partner by LG following a number of deals with Korean startups over the past year. In total, LG has committed over USD 90 million to robotics startups in the first 12 months of its investment initiative.

Flexible blue vertical micro LEDs

Researchers have developed a low cost production technology for thin-film blue flexible vertical micro LEDs.

Examples of Thermoelectric Progress in 2018

In thermoelectrics TE, there is currently no huge reinvention at the applicational level as with solar roads and windows reinventing photovoltaics or at the technology level as with airborne wind energy reinventing electrodynamic harvesting of wind.

Deep learning predicts drug-drug and drug-food interactions

A research teamdeveloped a computational framework, DeepDDI, that accurately predicts and generates 86 types of drug-drug and drug-food interactions as outputs of human-readable sentences, which allows in-depth understanding of the drug-drug and drug-food interactions.

Printed thermo-plasmonic heat patterns for neurological disorders

A highly customizable neural stimulation method. The research team developed a technology that can print the heat pattern on a micron scale to enable the control of biological activities remotely.

MXene material could improve sensors that sniff

Sensors that sniff out chemicals in the air to warn us about everything from fires to carbon monoxide to drunk drivers to explosive devices hidden in luggage have improved so much that they can even detect diseases on a person's breath.

Flexible vertical micro LED

A research team has developed flexible vertical micro LEDs using anisotropic conductive film (ACF)-based transfer and interconnection technology.

OLED threads for weaving wearable displays

One of the challenges in the push for wearable displays lies in finding reliable, high-performance light emitters compatible with the rough-and-ready world of woven clothing.

Flexible organic flash memory for foldable, disposable electronics

A research team has reported ultra-flexible organic flash memory that is bendable down to a radius of 300 μm. The memory exhibits a significantly-long projected retention rate with a programming voltage on par with the present industrial standards.

Lithium Battery Energy Science & Technology-LIBEST

LiBEST is a Korean company that has developed a flexible battery that can fit wristbands for smartwatches and other smart wearables.