Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-r7xzm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T11:52:34.714Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Compliant thin film patterns of stiff materials as platforms for stretchable electronics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2005

Teng Li
Affiliation:
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Zhigang Suo*
Affiliation:
Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
Stéphanie P. Lacour
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544
Sigurd Wagner
Affiliation:
Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544
*
a)Address all correspondence to this author.e-mail: suo@deas.harvard.edu
Get access

Abstract

A thin film of a stiff material, patterned as a serpentine on a flat elastomeric substrate, can elongate substantially when the substrate is pulled. We showed that the film elongates by twisting out of plane, accommodated by the compliance of the substrate and the pattern of the film. Consequently, large elongations of the substrate induce small strains in the film, even when the width of the film is much larger than its thickness. Such a wide serpentine, or other compliant patterns of stiff materials, can serve as a platform on which electronic circuits can be fabricated. This architecture will make electronics elastically stretchable.

Type
Rapid Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1.Rogers, J.A. and Bao, Z.: Printed plastic electronics and paperlike displays. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 40, 3327 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Forrest, S.R.: The path to ubiquitous and low-cost organic electronic appliances on plastic. Nature 428, 911 (2004).Google Scholar
3.Collins, G.P.: Next stretch for plastics electronics. Sci. Am. 291(2), 74 (2004).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
4.Wagner, S., Lacour, S.P., Jones, J., Hsu, P.I., Sturm, J.C., Li, T. and Suo, Z.: Electronic skin: Architecture and components. Physica E 25, 326 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Sekitani, T., Kato, Y., Iba, S., Shinaoka, H., Someya, T., Sakurai, T. and Takagi, S.: Bending experiment on pentacene field-effect transistors on plastic films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 073511 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Bhattacharya, R., Wagner, S., Tung, Y-J., Esler, J. and Hack, M.: OLED pixel array on a dome. Proc. IEEE 93, 1273 (2005).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Gleskova, H., Wagner, S. and Suo, Z.: Stability of amorphous silicon transistors under extreme in-plane strain. Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 3011 (1999).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Huang, H. and Spaepen, F.: Tensile testing of free-standing Cu, Ag and Al thin films and Ag/Cu multilayers. Acta Mater. 48, 3261 (2000).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Chiu, S.L., Leu, J. and Ho, P.S.: Fracture of metal-polymer line structures. I. Semiflexible polyimide. J. Appl. Phys. 76, 5136 (1994).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10.Alaca, B.E., Saif, M.T.A. and Sehitoglu, H.: On the interface debond at the edge of a thin film on a thick substrate. Acta Mater. 50, 1197 (2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11.Li, T., Huang, Z.Y., Suo, Z., Lacour, S.P. and Wagner, S.: Stretchability of thin metal films on elastomer substrates. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 3435 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Gray, D.S., Tien, J. and Chen, C.S.: High-conductivity elastomeric electronics. Adv. Mater. 16, 393 (2004).Google Scholar
13.Hsu, P.I., Huang, M., Xi, Z., Wagner, S., Suo, Z. and Sturm, J.C.: Spherical deformation of compliant substrates with semiconductor device islands. J. Appl. Phys. 95, 705 (2004).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
14.Lacour, S.P., Wagner, S., Huang, Z.Y. and Suo, Z.: Stretchable gold conductors on elastomeric substrates. Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 2404 (2003).CrossRefGoogle Scholar