Naoji Matsuhisa

Wearable devices can help monitor people’s health as they go about their day, but existing ones are too rigid to maintain good skin contact. Naoji Matsuhisa, 32, has developed a stretchy diode made of thin rubber sheets that operates at frequencies as high as 13.56 megahertz, a frequency used for electronic wireless communication devices; previous stretchable semiconductor devices maxed out around 100 hertz. Whereas other stretchy circuits often involved embedding brittle electrical components into softer materials, Matsuhisa is making the components themselves flexible.