Abstract
Gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) are promising materials for stretchable electronics due to their metallic conductivity and deformability. However, the fabrication of large-area stretchable integrated electronics using LMs on various polymers remains challenging due to their high surface tension, fluidity, and poor wettability. Current techniques, such as selective wetting and lift-off processes, face limitations related to substrate compatibility and Ga/metal alloying, hindering their applicability in integrated electronic systems. To address these challenges, we developed a high-resolution top-down etching-based photolithography combined with a universal cryogenic transfer method for transferring patterned LM particles (LMPs) in various polymer substrates. The cryogenic environment modifies the interfacial bonding between the LMPs and substrates, resulting in a universal transfer. The resulting liquid metal particle network embedded polymer (LNEP) exhibits high electrical conductivity (~1.71 × 10⁶ S/m), stability, and strain-insensitive performance across various polymers. This process is scalable to large-area fabrication, overcoming the limitations of existing LM patterning techniques. Leveraging this approach, we demonstrated the use of LNEP ranging from skin-conformal wearable sensors to hybrid stretchable circuits and implantable devices, demonstrating the universality of the method. This technique establishes a scalable pathway for stretchable electronics in advanced applications.
Data availability
The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper, Supplementary Information, and Source Data file. All other data are available from the corresponding authors upon request. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (RS-2023-00260637, RS-2023-00217888, RS-2024-00333710, RS-2025-04162969, RS-2021-NR057337), KAIST KAI-NEET Seed Money Project, Post-AI Project and LG Display (C2024004283_V1).
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D.H.L. and S.L. conceived the concept and designed the project. D.H.L., M.P., Y.-S.L., and S-M.P. designed animal experiments. D.H.L. and S.L. designed the ink, performed chemical and electrical characterization, and conducted data analysis. M.P. conducted the experimental work and performed characterization. Y-S.L. conducted the animal experiment. Junehyeok K. and Jihan K. designed and conducted the AIMD simulation. D.H.L., S.L., M.P., S.Y.K., H.J., and H.J.K. designed and conducted wearable device application. D.H.L. designed and fabricated neuromorphic circuit application. D.L. implemented a machine learning algorithm. J.C.Y. conducted a COMSOL simulation. T.L. and B.O. assisted the fabrication of hydrogel. S.Y.S. and S.G.I. conducted biocompatibility test. S.W. and D.-W.L. provided comments regarding the manuscript and data analysis. Y.-K.C. and S.P. were responsible for managing all aspects of this project. D.H.L. wrote the draft. S.L., S.W., Y.-K.C., and S.P. revised the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and the manuscript.
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Lee, D.H., Lee, S., Park, M. et al. Universal cryogenic transfer of liquid metal particles in polymers for wafer-scale stretchable integrated electronics. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70101-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70101-2
