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Materials design and integration strategies for soft bioelectronics in digital healthcare

Nature Reviews Materials volume 10, pages 654–673 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Advancements in bioelectronics are revolutionizing traditional healthcare by shifting the focus from in-hospital disease diagnosis and treatment to at-home continuous preventive care. This transformation integrates real-time health monitoring and point-of-care interventional therapies and enables artificial intelligence-based health management strategies. However, the mechanical mismatch between rigid bioelectronic devices and soft biological tissues presents important challenges, particularly in long-term applications, including poor adhesion, tissue degeneration, high noise level, signal interference and device instability. To address these challenges, soft bioelectronics — leveraging high-performance, tissue-mimicking and mechanically soft materials — has emerged as a disruptive solution. This Review highlights advancements in materials design and system-level integration strategies for soft bioelectronics, driving the development of next-generation digital healthcare technologies. We categorize materials design approaches, introduce fabrication techniques for soft bioelectronics and explore integration methods. Furthermore, we showcase applications of wearable and implantable soft bioelectronics, demonstrating their potential for continuous health monitoring and therapeutic interventions, ultimately enabling closed-loop health management.

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Fig. 1: Materials innovations revolutionizing soft bioelectronics for continuous and personalized healthcare.
Fig. 2: Progress of geometrically stretchable and intrinsically soft materials for soft bioelectronics.
Fig. 3: Material options and design strategies for intrinsically soft bioelectronics.
Fig. 4: Different strategies for soft bioelectronics design.
Fig. 5: State-of-the-art soft bioelectronics.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Institute for Basic Science (IBS-R006-D1 and IBS-R006-A1). Additional funding was provided by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (2021R1C1C200440021); the Institute of Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP)-ITRC (Information Technology Research Center) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (IITP-2025-RS-2024-00438007); and the BK21 FOUR (2120241315235) funded by the Ministry of Education (MOE, Korea), and NRF.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Hye Jin Kim, Ja Hoon Koo, Seunghwan Lee.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yonsei University, Wonju, Republic of Korea

    Hye Jin Kim

  2. Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Hye Jin Kim, Seunghwan Lee, Taeghwan Hyeon & Dae-Hyeong Kim

  3. Department of Semiconductor Systems Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ja Hoon Koo

  4. Institute of Semiconductor and System IC, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Ja Hoon Koo

  5. School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Seunghwan Lee, Taeghwan Hyeon & Dae-Hyeong Kim

  6. Interdisciplinary Program for Bioengineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Taeghwan Hyeon & Dae-Hyeong Kim

Authors
  1. Hye Jin Kim
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  2. Ja Hoon Koo
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Contributions

H.J.K., J.H.K. and S.L. contributed equally to this work. All authors participated in the discussion of content, contributed to the manuscript’s writing and collaboratively provided substantial input and revisions.

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Correspondence to Taeghwan Hyeon or Dae-Hyeong Kim.

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Nature Reviews Materials thanks Tal Dvir, Igor Efimov and Yan Wang for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Kim, H.J., Koo, J.H., Lee, S. et al. Materials design and integration strategies for soft bioelectronics in digital healthcare. Nat Rev Mater 10, 654–673 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00819-w

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