A method to fabricate thermoplastically deformable electronic circuits is presented, with the intent of achieving low-cost 2.5D free-form rigid smart objects. This by utilizing existing flexible circuit technology based stretchable circuits, in combination with thermoplastic materials. After fabricating the circuit in a flat state, a thermoforming step shapes the device by heating it beyond its glass transition temperature, and pushing it against a mold. Preliminary tests show the feasibility to fabricate simple circuits using off-the-shelf circuit components; showing a minimal decrease in conductivity of the polyimide supported copper-based interconnects.

Sensory polymer composites are highly desirable for applications such as in situ and real-time production processes and structural health monitoring, and for technologies that include human-machine interfaces for the next generation of Internet of Things. However, the development of these materials is still in its infancy: these materials have been reported, but the large-scale fabrication of polymer composites with versatile and customizable sensing capabilities has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we report on a scalable fabrication strategy that enables such materials by designing and integrating PCB technology-inspired large-area flexible sensor matrices into polymer composites. The integrated sensor matrices successfully monitored in situ the production processes and structural health of an industrial polymer composite: from the application of vacuum, resin flow and polymerization, production defects, and temperature distribution. Our results demonstrate that the proposed strategy is a simple and effective solution as a distributed monitoring platform for polymer composites and shows the potential toward next generation of sensory polymer composites.

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