ABSTRACT Freestanding functional oxide membranes combine the ferroic, dielectric, magnetic, and optoelectronic properties of complex oxides with the mechanical compliance required for wearable and bioelectronic devices. By removing substrate clamping, these membranes enable large elastic deformation and domain responses that are difficult to access in conventional substrate‐bound heterostructures. This review discusses recent fabrication methods, including chemical lift‐off, laser‐induced interfacial decomposition, mechanical spalling, and epitaxy on 2D templates, and compares their effectiveness for defect‐sensitive and large‐area applications. We then discuss how the freestanding state supports functions ranging from piezoelectric sensing and energy harvesting to curvature‐driven magnetoelectric coupling and electro‐optic modulation. Reported conformal devices show the potential of freestanding oxide membranes to combine mechanical adaptability with high functional performance. Finally, we discuss remaining problems in scalable manufacturing, standardized fatigue assessment, encapsulation, and long‐term stability in physiological environments, and outline practical routes toward their integration into wearable electronics and biomedical devices.
Peng et al. (Thu,) studied this question.