A Bezel‐Less Tetrahedral Image Sensor Formed by Solvent‐Assisted Plasticization and Transformation of an Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene Framework

Abstract

A method for transforming planar electronic devices into 3D structures under mechanically mild and stable conditions is demonstrated. This strategy involves diffusion control of acetone as a plasticizer into a spatially designed acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) framework to both laminate membrane-type electronic devices and transform them into a desired 3D shape. Optical, mechanical, and electrical analysis reveals that the plasticized region serves as a damper and even reflows to release the stress of fragile elements, for example, an Au interconnect electrode in this study, below the ultimate stress point. This method also gives considerable freedom in aligning electronic devices not only in the neutral mechanical plane of the ABS framework, which is the general approach in flexible electronics, but also to the top surface, without inducing electrical failure. Finally, to develop a prototype omnidirectional optical system with minimal aberrations, this method is used to produce a bezel-less tetrahedral image sensor.

Hexahedral LED Arrays with Row and Column Control Lines Formed by Selective Liquid‐Phase Plasticization and Nondisruptive Tucking‐Based Origami

“…Recently developed "origami" technology is feasible for the fabrication of various transformable forms [1][2][3][4] for interdisciplinary applications, such as microelectromechanical systems, [5,6] optical devices, [7,8] artificial muscles, [9] mechanical metamaterials, [10,11] biomedical systems, [12,13] microfluidic paper devices, [14] energy storage/conversion systems, [15][16][17][18] and electronics. [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] The technology basically uses geometrical relief structures, such as trenches, [18,21,30] dashed cut lines, [8,20,22,26] and cre ases, [3,9,15,17,24,…”

“…[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] The technology basically uses geometrical relief structures, such as trenches, [18,21,30] dashed cut lines, [8,20,22,26] and cre ases, [3,9,15,17,24,32,35] in the desired regions that can be deformed by simple external mechanical forces. Selective bending is also the other hand, the construction of 3D devices that are capable of addressing pixels such as image sensors [28][29][30][31] and displays (highlighted in this study) require circuit designs with minimum row and column readout/control lines to ensure high resolution. For example, in order to develop polyhedral addressable devices, a tetrahedral shape can be obtained via simple origami technology from a triangle shape with four detecting zones without establishing a detour in the electronic path, as demonstrated in a previous paper.…”

“…For example, in order to develop polyhedral addressable devices, a tetrahedral shape can be obtained via simple origami technology from a triangle shape with four detecting zones without establishing a detour in the electronic path, as demonstrated in a previous paper. [30] However, hexahedral or more complicated polyhedral shapes can be achieved by kirigami or tucking-based origami rather than simple origami. In the case of the kirigami approach, such a transformation is possible without in-plane distortion but inevitably requires a detour in the electronic path to avoid unwanted electrical disconnects, which causes a low resolution.…”

“…In the case of using plastic materials for a 2D relief construct, a transient plasticization process using a volatile solvent enables stability during both the shape transformation and maintenance of the final form. [30] Second, the transformation method should also be concerned with the design of the circuit layout electrically. The formation of devices that need only two common terminals, such as batteries, [17] solar cells, [21] and 3D photodetectors, [33] by Miura origami allows more freedom in the circuit layout.…”

“…The method of integrating electronic devices on predesigned 2D constructs and origami/kirigami transformation seems promising for the development of 3D electronic devices, including batteries, [16][17][18] capacitors, [19] solar cells, [20][21][22] tunable antennas, [23][24][25] stretchable electrodes, [26,27] image sensors, [28][29][30][31] photodetector, [32,33] and circuit boards, [34,35] because their planar forms can serve as a platform to mount electronic device layers that can be created by conventional silicon technologies. This approach basically confronts two issues.…”