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Hanyang University Team Reports Transistor E-Skin That Senses Touch and Proximity

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Researchers at Hanyang University ERICA in South Korea have developed a transistor-based electronic skin designed to give robots and prosthetic devices a sense of touch and proximity, the university announced on August 10, 2026. The work was led by Associate Professor Jaekyun Kim of the Department of Photonics and Nanoelectronics and published in the journal Nano Energy, according to the release, which lists the paper as published online on April 9, 2026 and in Volume 153 on June 15, 2026.

How the device works

The paper, titled "Vertically integrated dual-gated tribotronic transistor for active-matrix tactile and proximity sensing," describes a design that stacks a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) triboelectric sensing layer, acting as the top gate, over an indium-tin-zinc-oxide (ITZO) thin-film transistor, according to the university. Triboelectric materials produce an electrical signal through contact electrification, and the transistor beneath the sensing layer amplifies that response.

"Our vertical dual-gate architecture not only offers gate-tunable amplification of the triboelectronic responses, but also minimizes pixel footprint, enabling high-density, large-area integration," Kim said in the release.

Because each sensing element is built into a transistor, the design follows an active-matrix layout, the same general approach used to address individual pixels in flat-panel displays. The researchers say that layout supports dense arrays that can be scaled to larger areas.

Reported performance

The device responded in 127 milliseconds and recovered in 212 milliseconds, according to the university. The team reported stable performance across 1,000 operating cycles and proximity sensing at distances of up to 500 micrometers, the release said. The researchers also demonstrated a 10 by 10 transistor array that produced pixel-level responses, according to Hanyang University ERICA.

Proximity sensing is useful for robots because it gives a gripper or hand advance warning of an object or person just before contact, which can support gentler grasping and safer human-robot interaction.

Applications and next steps

The university lists healthcare robotics, health monitoring, autonomous devices and advanced human-machine interfaces as target applications. "Our research could contribute to the development of electronic skin systems that allow robots, prosthetic devices, and wearable electronics to perceive touch, pressure, and proximity more precisely," Kim said, according to Design News.

The announcement describes a laboratory prototype array and does not give a timeline for commercial products. Robot makers evaluating tactile sensing will be watching for results on larger arrays, curved surfaces such as fingertips, and long-term durability beyond the cycle counts reported so far.

Sources