Stretchable Organic Electrochemical Transistors with High Transconductance for Bioelectronic and Neuromorphic Applications

Organic electrochemical transistors (OECTs) are promising for physiological signal detection and neuromorphic computing, yet their practical applications have been constrained by the difficulty of simultaneously achieving high transconductance and mechanical stretchability. In this work, we report a stretchable OECT platform based on a highly conductive polymer/thermoplastic polymer/metal nanowire hybrid electrode, a mechanically robust ultrathick PEDOT/PSS active layer, and a dual-cation ion gel electrolyte. Through this integrated materials and device-level design, the optimized OECT achieves a transconductance of up to 207.2 mS while retaining approximately 62% of its transconductance under 100% tensile strain. Representative electrocardiogram and electromyogram measurements are employed as validation experiments to demonstrate stable signal amplification under realistic, motion-rich conditions. In parallel, the same OECT platform is used to verify low-voltage neuromorphic and mechano-synaptic behaviors, operating at gate voltages as low as 100 mV even under large mechanical deformation. Rather than introducing new sensing or computing paradigms, this work demonstrates that careful codesign of materials and device geometry can mitigate conventional trade-offs in stretchable OECTs, providing a practical foundation for future deformable bioelectronic and neuromorphic systems.