Stretchable and Foldable Silicon Integrated Circuits

Abstract

We have developed a simple approach to high-performance, stretchable, and foldable integrated circuits. The systems integrate inorganic electronic materials, including aligned arrays of nanoribbons of single crystalline silicon, with ultrathin plastic and elastomeric substrates. The designs combine multilayer neutral mechanical plane layouts and "wavy" structural configurations in silicon complementary logic gates, ring oscillators, and differential amplifiers. We performed three-dimensional analytical and computational modeling of the mechanics and the electronic behaviors of these integrated circuits. Collectively, the results represent routes to devices, such as personal health monitors and other biomedical devices, that require extreme mechanical deformations during installation/use and electronic properties approaching those of conventional systems built on brittle semiconductor wafers.

In‐Plane Deformation Mechanics for Highly Stretchable Electronics

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Stretchable electronics represents a relatively recent class of technology [1,2] of interest partly due to its potential for applications in sensory robotic skins, [3,4] conformal photovoltaic modules, [5,6] wearable communication devices, [7,8] skin-mounted monitors of physiological health, [9][10][11] advanced, soft surgical and clinical diagnostic tools, [11,12] and bioinspired digital cameras. [13,14] A key challenge in each of these systems is in the development of strategies in mechanics that simultaneously allow large levels of elastic stretchability and high areal coverages of active devices built with materials that are themselves not stretchable (e.g., conventional metals) and are, in some cases, highly brittle (e.g., inorganic semiconductors).

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Ambient Electronics

“…Thus far, the development of stretchable electronics has been actively carried out worldwide by transferring highly conductive materials such as metals and graphene onto rubber sheets for use in stretchable interconnections, and by machining metal-evaporated films into a mesh structure to make them stretchable. [59][60][61][62][63][64][65] 4.1 Background to research on stretchable electronics In 2003, Sigurd Wagner of Princeton University and colleagues reported inverter circuits and transistor arrays that were stretchable by up to approximately 10% by mounting specially prepared amorphous silicon in silicone rubber and forming transistors consisting of wavy gold electrodes. 59) This is the first reported example of stretchable electronics comprising active elements to the best of our knowledge.…”

Flash‐Induced Stretchable Cu Conductor via Multiscale‐Interfacial Couplings

“…Stretchable electronics have significant potential to shift personal computing toward new wearable and healthcare applications, such as robotic skin, conformal photovoltaics, and wireless communication systems 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. For instance, they can be mounted on curved and dynamic surfaces of the skin to monitor the body's vital signs through real‐time/bilateral data transmissions based on a human–machine interface (HMI), thus realizing a hyperconnected society 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.…”

“…Stretchable electrodes have been extensively developed using nanomaterials (e.g., metal nanowires (NWs), nanoparticles (NPs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), and 2D materials), and geometrical engineering processes (e.g., buckled, serpentine, and net formations) 1, 2, 3, 8, 10, 12, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. However, structurally designed conductors face challenges with regard to wider applications due to their complicated encapsulation and transfer process, large interconnection area, and limited stretching directions 27, 28.…”