Highly stretchable large area woven, knitted and robust braided textile based interconnection for stretchable electronics

Abstract

With the rapid development of stretchable and wearable technologies, stretchable interconnection technology also demanded along it. Stretchable interconnections should have high stretchability and stable conductivity for use as an electrode. In addition, to develop to commercialization scale from research scale, a simple fabrication process that can be scaled up, and the stretchable interconnection should be able to be electrically connected to devices or modules directly. To date, printable conductor inks, liquid metals and stretchable structured interconnections have been reported for stretchable interconnections. These approaches have demonstrated high stretchability and conductivity, but in aspect of scale, it is appropriate to apply in micro-scale devices. For requirements of stretchability, conductivity and direct integration into meso- or centimeter-scale electronic devices or modules, here we introduce stretchable interconnections with a textile structure composed of metal fibers. The stretchable woven and knitted textiles show 67% strain and stable conductivity, and the cylindrical textile shows more than 700% strain with high strength. The stretchable textiles were fabricated using a weaving, knitting and braiding machine that can be used to produce textiles without any limit to length or area. These textiles exhibit high and stable conductivity even under deformation, and can be directly integrated into devices or modules by soldering. These high-performance stretchable textiles have great potential for commercial applications.

Stretchable electronic strips for electronic textiles enabled by 3D helical structure

“…30% strain, for 1000 cycles, has been used in similar work 18 , 56 . And highly stretchable helical interconnects have survived 500% strain, but only for 500 cycles 33 . Thus helical e-strips, at this early development stage, perform well against competing technologies.…”

“…Existing work using helical geometry in electronics has focused on helical interconnects joining planar circuit modules, rather than entire circuits. This includes helical polyurethane (PU) and copper fibers 30 , helices of nanoparticle coated yarn embedded in PDMS 31 , helical conductive yarn 32 , helical copper interconnects embedded in silicone 33 , and helical interconnects for epidermal electronics 34 . Controlled buckling has also been used to create form microwires into helical electrodes embedded in elastomers 24 .…”

End-to-end design of wearable sensors

“…In addition, many nanomaterials have outstanding mechanical characteristics in terms of the flexibility and elasticity required for wearable devices. With the increasing interest in flexible electronics, there has been rapid development of advanced fabrication techniques for these materials, such as printing of metal 51 or nanomaterial inks 52 in serpentine patterns 53 or even weaving of metal threads 54 , that allow for their incorporation into deformable wearable substrates. The use of this class is indispensable for wearables in which the general approach is the miniaturization and conversion of traditional electrical devices (namely, circuits, sensors 55 , antennas 56 and integrated power systems 57 ) into a wearable format.…”

Advanced Nanofiber-Based Scaffolds for Achilles Tendon Regenerative Engineering

“…Permission to reproduce was granted under the conditions of the license (CC BY 4.0). Copyright 2021, Yun et al (2021) .…”