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Printed circuit board technology inspired stretchable circuits

  • Materials for stretchable electronics
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Abstract

In the past 15 years, stretchable electronic circuits have emerged as a new technology in the domain of assembly, interconnections, and sensor circuit technologies. In the meantime, a wide variety of processes using many different materials have been explored in this new field. In the current contribution, we present an approach inspired by conventional rigid and flexible printed circuit board (PCB) technology. Similar to PCBs, standard packaged, rigid components are assembled on copper contact pads using lead-free solder reflow processes. Stretchability is obtained by shaping the copper tracks as horseshoe-shaped meanders. Elastic materials, predominantly polydimethylsiloxanes, are used to embed the conductors and the components, thus serving as a circuit carrier. We describe mechanical modeling, aimed at optimizing the build-up toward maximum mechanical reliability of the structures. Details on the production process, reliability assessment, and a number of functional demonstrators are described.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gladly acknowledge the financial support of this research by the European, Belgian, and Flemish authorities through the following projects: IWT-SBO-BioFlex, BELSPO-TAP2-SWEET, EC-FP6-STELLA, EC-FP7-Place-It, and EC-FP7-PASTA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Microsystems Technology, Ghent University and Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Ghent, Belgium

    J. Vanfleteren, F. Bossuyt, T. Vervust & M. Jablonski

  2. Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre, Leuven, Belgium

    M. Gonzalez

  3. MC10 Inc, Cambridge, MA, 02140, USA

    Y. Y. Hsu

  4. Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre and Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium

    I. De Wolf

Authors
  1. J. Vanfleteren
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  2. M. Gonzalez
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  3. F. Bossuyt
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  4. Y. Y. Hsu
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  5. T. Vervust
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  6. I. De Wolf
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  7. M. Jablonski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J. Vanfleteren.

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Vanfleteren, J., Gonzalez, M., Bossuyt, F. et al. Printed circuit board technology inspired stretchable circuits. MRS Bulletin 37, 254–260 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2012.48

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