A Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistor Mechano‐Synapse With Biomimetic Mechanotransduction for Intelligent Soft Electronic Skin

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Tactile perception relies on early preprocessing of signals from adapting afferents; in particular, synapse‐like coupling between afferent nerve fibers and adapting mechanoreceptors supports transduction and sensory memory, enabling efficient central representations of tactile information. Inspired by the sustained slow‐adapting (SA) responses of Merkel cells with fast cation influx through Piezo‐2 channels and subsequent sustained Ca 2+ influx through voltage gated Ca 2+ channels, we present a stretchable SA mechano‐synapse (sSA‐MS) with biomimetic mechanotransduction. The device utilizes an ionic polarization‐controlled gate dielectric of stacked N‐ and P‐like ionogels in an organic electrochemical transistor to create the ion redistribution that strengthens excitatory post‐synaptic current (EPSC) hysteresis and integrates reception, adaptation, and memory within a single unit device. Under sub‐second static contact, the sSA‐MS generates EPSC signatures with separable pressure and material components and can interface directly with a compact machine learning model, demonstrating single device disentanglement and in‐sensor processing. Together, these advances outline a practical route to edge intelligent, stretchable electronic skin ( e ‐skin) with multimodal tactile perception, helping narrow the gap between artificial and human touch.