Flexible and stretchable inorganic optoelectronics

Flexible and stretchable optoelectronics have attracted attention in recent years due to their remarkable capabilities for use in wearable computers, personal monitors, and other systems. These devices are conformal to human skin or tissue due to mechanical compliance, which is extremely suitable for biomedical or clinical applications, such as bionic devices, monitors, or curing diseases. This paper presents an overview of the flexible and stretchable inorganic optoelectronics, including mechanical design, photonic analysis, fabrication processing, some examples of the devices, and their applications in biomedical engineering. First, the recent technological advances in flexible designs and fabrication strategies are summarized. Then, the flexible and stretchable devices with different functionalities are described, including light-emitting devices, photodetectors, and other optical devices. Finally, we show the applications of flexible and stretchable optoelectronics on biomedical engineering. Also, we discuss the prospects of flexible and stretchable optoelectronic devices in the future. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement