Mechanics plays a critical role in the development of next-generation technologies, such as stretchable electronics, electronic-eye camera, and flexible silicon photovoltaic. Stretchable electronics has many applications such as portable electronics, flexible display, small optical sensor and compact digital camera, sensors and drive electronics for artificial muscles, and structural monitors wrapped around aircraft wings.  Silicon, the widely used semiconductor material, is intrinsically brittle and not stretchable.  We have used the mechanics principle to produce a stretchable form of silicon (Science 2006) as well as stretchable circuits (Science 2008) that consist of sub-micrometer single crystal elements structured into shapes with microscale periodic, wave-like geometries.  When supported by an elastomeric substrate, the wavy silicon or circuit can be reversibly stretched and compressed like a rubber band (to 140% strains), bent over sharp edges, and twisted like a rope (Nature Nanotechnology 2006; PNAS 2007, 2008; JMPS 2008).  Based on the mechanics principle we have developed the transfer printing technique (Nature Materials 2006), and have made the first electronic-eye camera (Nature 2008), flexible silicon photovoltaic (Nature Materials, 2008), flexible LED display (Science, 2009) and curvilinear electronics (PNAS 2009).  The transfer printing technique enable electronic and photonic devices to be printed on arbitrary curvilinear surfaces and have many applications in medicine, while flexible silicon photovoltaic will significantly boost the use of solar energy in our daily life.

 

Yonggang Huang is the Joseph Cumming Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and also Civil and Environmental Engineering, at Northwestern University. He has published 1 book, 25 book chapters, and 300 papers in journals, including multi-disciplinary journals Science, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Nanotechnology, and PNAS; physics journals PRL, PRB, and APL; materials journals Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, Acta Materialia, and JMR; nano journals Nano Letters, Small, and Nanotechnology; chemistry journals Langmuir, and Angewandte Chemie; and mechanics journals JMPS. Four of his papers published in 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2004 have become the most cited ones among more than 9000 papers published annually in all 110 mechanics journals listed in ISI Web of Science in the corresponding years.  These are also the most cited papers among more than 8700 papers published annually in all 104 mechanical engineering journals in the corresponding years. 

His recent work has been reported by many popular media such as ABC, BBC, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Discover, MSNBC, New York Times, Newsweek, Reuters, United Press International, and US News & World Report. His recent awards include the Larson Memorial Award in 2003 and Melville Medal in 2004, both from ASME; Young Investigator Medal from the Society of Engineering Sciences in 2006; International Journal of Plasticity Medal in 2007; Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2008; ISI Highly Cited Researcher (Engineering) in 2009.  He held the Grayce Wicall Gauthier Professorship (2003-04), Shao Lee Soo Professorship (2004-07) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the Visiting Clark Millikan Professorship (2005-06) at Caltech, and Honorary Professor at Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications.